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how to have 'find' not return the current directory

rated 0 times [ 22] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 14736 / 1 Year ago, mon, december 19, 2022, 7:23:10

I'm currently trying to find (and copy) all files and folder structure matching a specific pattern, in a specified directory and I'm so nearly there!

Specifically, I want to recursively copy all folders not begining with a '_' character from a specified path.

find /source/path/with/directories -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name _* -exec cp -R {} /destination/path ;

In the /source/path/with/directories/ path are machine-specific directories beginning with '_' and others, and I'm only interested in copying the others. For a reason beyond me, the find command returns the /source/path/with/directories/ directory, and therefore copies its content, directories begining with '_' included.

Anyone have a hint as to why that is?

Thanks,

Pascal

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poefor

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2 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago berlorful · Accepted Answer

find returns the root path because it matches your criteria—i.e. it is a directory, and it doesn't start with _.

You're looking for -mindepth 1, I suspect:

$ cd /tmp

$ mkdir a

$ touch a/b

$ mkdir a/c

$ touch a/c/d

$ find a

a

a/b

a/c

a/c/d

$ find a -mindepth 1

a/b

a/c

a/c/d

Reference: find manpage