How to find files that aren't in a given folder(s)?

domoarigato · 03-25-2017, 09:25 PM

Could anyone please tell me a command to search my computer for a file ("gentoo.txt") but ignore one folder ("UVWX")
or ignore multiple folders ("UVWX2", "UVWX3", and "UVWX4")?
Thanks in advance for helping a command line newbie.

AuroraZero · 03-25-2017, 09:40 PM

The command ag might be what you are looking for here. It very versital and easy to use once you get the hang of its flags.

For example:

Code:

ad gentoo.txt -l --ignore-dir=/etc/man

will give you all the files names gentoo.txt except for the ones in /etc/man.

Code:

ad gentoo.txt -l --ignore-dir=/etc/man --ignore-dir=/usr/src

will give you all the gentoo.txt files except those in /etc/man and /usr/src.

Hope that is what you are looking for and helps out.

domoarigato · 03-25-2017, 09:59 PM

AuroraZero: Thank you very much, I'll try that... I appreciate the help, and have a good day/night.

syg00 · 03-25-2017, 10:00 PM

Sounds like homework - in the normal course of events, why would a user care ?.
"find" is the obvious answer, but "locate" is easier on the machine if the updatedb has been run.

domoarigato · 03-25-2017, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Sounds like homework - in the normal course of events, why would a user care ?.
"find" is the obvious answer, but "locate" is easier on the machine if the updatedb has been run.

syg00: Thanks for the reply.
If I use "find" and "locate", how do I enter the command, and with what flags or options? Thank you.

AwesomeMachine · 03-26-2017, 12:08 AM

Locate

Code:

$ locate file_name

domoarigato · 03-26-2017, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwesomeMachine

Locate

Code:

$ locate file_name

Awesome M: Thanks for the reply. How do I use "locate" to search for the file but make it ignore one or more folders? Also, what does the "$" do?

nodir · 03-26-2017, 04:54 AM

Code:

locate file_name | grep -v ignorefolder

would work.

The $ is only there as an example for a command prompt. With a # (opposed to the $) you are told it has to be run as root.

Madhu Desai · 03-26-2017, 06:05 AM

@domoarigato, I'm bit confused here. The title says 'How to find files that aren't in a given folder(s)?' Well, you cannot find those files there, because they are NOT there... What I'm missing here?

Why would search result will show folders like UVWX, UVWX3 etc, when you search for file gentoo.txt? Are there multiple copies of gentoo.txt files also available in folders that you have mentioned earlier?

Is this specific to Gentoo Distro?

Anyway, possible two ways to find gentoo.txt file are

Code:

locate '*gentoo.txt' | grep -v 'UVWX*'
find / -type f -name 'gentoo.txt' ! -path '*UVWX*'

MadeInGermany · 03-26-2017, 07:25 PM

Find files that are not in UVWX* directories.
Most precise is

Code:

locate 'gentoo.txt' | grep -v '/UVWX[^/]*/'
find / -type d -name 'UVWX*' -prune -o -type f -name 'gentoo.txt' -print

grep takes a regular expression, while find takes a shell-glob pattern.
-prune actually skips the directories - this is faster than processing but not printing them.
You need -print in order to suppress the default print at -prune.

domoarigato · 03-28-2017, 07:57 AM

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I appreciate all the help and I'll try your suggested commands...