[SOLVED] Need find syntax to exclude files and directories

mfoley · 09-16-2015, 12:43 AM

I have the following find command:

Code:

find /mnt/hd/Windows -type d \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/wdi/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/winevt/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/security \) -prune -o \
        -o -not /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit \
        -not /mnt/hd/Windows/WindowsUpdate.log -print

Excluding the directories works fine, but the bit underlined does not. I've tried various things. Can someone help?

zhjim · 09-16-2015, 02:44 AM

You are looking for directories according to -type d thus I wonder why it prints files.
You also have a double -o before the ResCache.hit line.

Can you please provide some output the command generates?

mfoley · 09-16-2015, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zhjim

You are looking for directories according to -type d thus I wonder why it prints files.

There is a "-prune" after the list of directories. That part works; i.e. the find works if you remove the underlined part.

Quote:

You also have a double -o before the ResCache.hit line.

Good catch. I took that out and still have the error.

Quote:

Can you please provide some output the command generates?

Code:

find: paths must precede expression: /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]

schneidz · 09-16-2015, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfoley

I have the following find command:

Code:

find /mnt/hd/Windows -type d \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/wdi/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/winevt/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/security \) -prune -o \
        -o -not /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit \
        -not /mnt/hd/Windows/WindowsUpdate.log -print

Excluding the directories works fine, but the bit underlined does not. I've tried various things. Can someone help?

what is it that you are trying to get.

i think you are trying to check for the existence of these directories:
/mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config
/mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch
/mnt/hd/Windows/System32/LogFiles
/mnt/hd/Windows/System32/wdi/LogFiles
/mnt/hd/Windows/System32/winevt/Logs
/mnt/hd/Windows/security

or list any sub-directory not under /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit nor /mnt/hd/Windows/WindowsUpdate.log :

Code:

find /mnt/hd/Windows -type d \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/wdi/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/winevt/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/security \) -prune \
        -o ! /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit \
        -o ! /mnt/hd/Windows/WindowsUpdate.log

zhjim · 09-16-2015, 09:33 AM

@schneidz Hes trying to exclude the directories given and ignore two files.

If possible leave out the -type d option. Cause it tells find to only look at directories.

To get a working list you might also pipe the output to grep and ignore the 2 files. So this is only usuable if you only have those 2 files you want to ignore.

mfoley · 09-16-2015, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zhjim

@schneidz Hes trying to exclude the directories given and ignore two files.

Exactly!

[quote]If possible leave out the -type d option. Cause it tells find to only look at directories.{/quote]

Didn't work, same error message.

Quote:

To get a working list you might also pipe the output to grep and ignore the 2 files. So this is only usuable if you only have those 2 files you want to ignore.

Yeah, not usable that way - will likely have more than those files, plus I'm really running -exec not -print, so not really easy to grep.

What about:

Code:

    find /mnt/hd/Windows -type d \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/wdi/LogFiles \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/winevt/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/SoftwareDistribution/DataStore/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Logs \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Temp \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/security \) -prune -o \
      -type f \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/WindowsUpdate.log \) -prune -o -print

I'll try that and post back ...

mfoley · 09-16-2015, 11:52 AM

OK, I think I've got it!

Code:

    find /mnt/hd/Windows -type d \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/System32/config \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Prefetch \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/Temp \
        -o -path /mnt/hd/Windows/security \
        -o -iregex ".*/Logs$" \
        -o -iregex ".*\.Log$" \) -prune -o \
      -type f \( -path /mnt/hd/Windows/rescache/rc0011/ResCache.hit \
        -o -iregex ".*\.log$" \) -prune -o -print

The "-type f" expression took care of the multi-file exclusion, and the -iregex let me eliminate files (and directories) by wildcard, so I don't need as big a list in either "-type d" or "-type f" sets.

zhjim · 09-17-2015, 01:27 AM

Nice. Good job.