1

This works for me, in that it excludes the "foo" directory from the root directory of the search:

grep -rn --exclude-dir=foo 'custom'

However this doesn't work:

grep -rn --exclude-dir=foo/bar 'custom'

But the "foo/bar" directory is still searched. I also tried it with quotes:

grep -rn --exclude-dir='foo/bar' 'custom'

I'm using Ubuntu 20.

Update

Although not perfect, I used this workaround instead:

grep -rn 'custom'|grep -v 'foo/bar'

This will fail to find lines that contain both "foo/bar" and "custom".

gornvix
  • 135
  • 5
  • 1
    In my Kubuntu `man 1 grep` says "skip any subdirectory whose *base* name matches". The base name of `foo` is `foo`, so it works; but the base name of `foo/bar` is `bar`. Can you exclude `bar`? or must it be `foo/bar`? (because you don't want to exclude other `bar`s). – Kamil Maciorowski Nov 02 '20 at 11:24
  • @KamilMaciorowski I want to exclude bar which is a subdirectory of foo, my directory structure is foo/bar. – gornvix Nov 02 '20 at 11:27
  • [`firejail --blacklist`](https://superuser.com/a/1575570/432690) is a general way to exclude any path, even if the tool you want to use doesn't support excluding. – Kamil Maciorowski Nov 02 '20 at 11:36
  • @KamilMaciorowski firejail sounds a bit complicated/convoluted. I found a workaround and updated my question. – gornvix Nov 02 '20 at 11:50

2 Answers2

0

I just ran into the same issue, solved it by calling

grep -rn --exclude="**/foo/**" 'custom'

Andreas Schaller
  • 101
  • 1
0

Use this operator "*variable*" as wildcard matching any directory you want to exclude from grep search.

In your case,

grep -rn --exclude-dir={"*foo*"} 'custom' will exclude directory or subdirectory with a name of 'foo'.

grep -rn --exclude-dir={"*foo*","*bar*"} 'custom' will exclude any directory and subdirectory with a name of 'foo' and 'bar'.

Faron
  • 387
  • 1
  • 2
  • 12