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Using Find with an exclude/exclude file

I am familiar with using tar and exclude/include files:

Code:

tar zcf backup.dirs.tgz --files-from=include.mydirs --exclude-from=exclude.mydirs --no-recursion

but was wondering if I could use find in the same way. I know that you can just specify the directories to exclude but my list is large. Tar is specific which I like:

Code:



find . -depth -ipath './.*' -prune -o -ipath './Downloads*' -prune -o -print

I have to backup specific files from several location and exclude the residual garbage. In my script I have it structure to use find and cpio together and wanted to minimally modify it. So what I want is:

Code:

find (read from include file) (read from exclude file) | cpio -oavc > somedir

I am trying to avoid using several find statements for querying specific directories. Thanks

Code:

find /home/testuser/ \( ! -iname "testdir1*" ! -iname "testdir2*"\)

find /usr/var/ \( ! -iname "testdir3*" ! -iname "testdir4*"\)

find /usr/lib/ \( ! -iname "libssl*" ! -iname "libperl*"\)



or 

find /home/testuser/ -depth -ipath './testdir1*' -o -prune -ipath './testdir2*' -o -prune print

As a thought, have you looked at using rsync?

HTH. Let us know.

Many thanks for the reply

It looks promising, do you know if the compression on the archive is as good or better that using tar or cpio? I am concerned about spacing issues.

Regards

it can be done using grep:

Code:

find ... | grep -v -f excludefile | grep -f includefile | cpio ...

regards

Just an update:

Code:

find ... | grep -f includefile | cpio -oavc > /some/destination

appears to be all that is needed. Using grep in this way, there wasn't a need for an exclude file. It will only use what is in the include-file.

This worked better

Code:

find / -depth -ipath '/home/testuser/.*' -prune -o -print| grep -f include.mydirs | grep -v -f exclude.mydirs

but it doesnt work if I want to see the differences within 24 hours

Code:



find / -depth -mtime 0 -ipath '/home/testuser/.*' -prune -o -print| grep -f include.mydirs | grep -v -f exclude.mydirs

it did work. I made an adjustment in my exclude.mydir. i was blocking my test directory.

By the way, you can use several directories in find. Including only the directories you want to backup, you may not need a long exclude list

find /home/mydir /var/ ...

Just wanted to add a note so that other users may have a better understanding of my headaches:

Code:

sudo find / -depth ! -path '*/\.*' -iname '*' -type f | grep -f include_home | grep -v -f exclude_home

excludes "all" hidden directories

Code:

! -path '*/\.*'

my include_home file(files and directories to include) which is all that was needed (no grep -v -f exclude_home) if you are not worried about "find" decending into other directories searching for the same file and directories

ex. just a snippett of the results

Code:

sudo find / -depth ! -path '*/\.*' -iname '*' -type f | grep -f include_home

/etc/network/interfaces

/etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon

/xspace/shit/music/transfer/0a92e46f-a8c1-4e0e-bcfe-c3cd7797a682/etc/network/if-down.d/avahi-autoipd.dpkg-new

/xspace/shit/music/transfer/0a92e46f-a8c1-4e0e-bcfe-c3cd7797a682/etc/network/interfaces

my include_home file(a snippett):

Code:

home/testuser/transfer/

home/testuser/Videos/

home/testuser/VirtualBox VMs/

/etc/lsb-release

/etc/network/

and my exclude_home file

Code:

#home/

usr/

lib/

bin/

etc/

xspace/

boot/

docs/

sbin/

tmp/

sys/

var/

opt/

media/

dev/

proc/

As you can see from above find will ascend down into other directories but if grep -v -f exclude_home files is used, it will not allow that to happen thus filtering out replica files in other-directories except if there are duplicates withing the same directories. Grep are simply the filters:

Code:

sudo find / -depth ! -path '*/\.*' -iname '*' -type f | grep -f include_home | grep -v -f exclude_home

/etc/network/interfaces

/etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon