How to exclude a specific file in find

Question

Suppose my directory structure looks like

A--file1.cpp
   file2.cpp
   file3.cpp
   file1.h
   file2.h
   file3.h

B--file1.cpp
   file2.cpp
   file3.cpp
   file1.h
   file2.h
   file3.h

and my goal is to find every cpp file besides file1.cpp in the A folder

find A/ B/ -name \*.cpp will find all the files, and I tried find A/ B/ ! -name file1.cpp -name \*.cpp this will exclude file1.cpp from the B folder as well. find A/ B/ -prune -o file1.cpp -name \*.cpp doesn't work either. What is the correct way to do it?

Charles Duffy · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-28 00:59:19Z

2

The -path predicate will let you ignore a specific file or directory.

find . -path ./A/file1.cpp -prune -o -type f -name '*.cpp' -print

Tested as follows:

tempdir=$(mktemp -d "$TMPDIR"/test.d.XXXXXX)
cd "$tempdir" && {
  mkdir -p A B
  touch {A,B}/file{1,2,3}.{cpp,h}
  find A B -path A/file1.cpp -prune -o -type f -name '*.cpp' -print
  rm -rf -- "$tempdir"
}

...emitting output of:

A/file2.cpp
A/file3.cpp
B/file1.cpp
B/file2.cpp
B/file3.cpp

edited Feb 28, 2017 at 0:59

answered Feb 28, 2017 at 0:38

Charles Duffy

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8 Comments

user3667089 Over a year ago

I tried find A/ B/ -path ./A/file1.cpp -prune -o -type f -print and it's showing all 6 files

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

I've amended with test procedure and output. You can copy-and-paste that yourself.

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

Your -path predicate needs to write the name in accordance with the path argument you passed to find telling it where/how to start the search. Thus, if you pass find the directory name A, it's A/file1.cpp.

user3667089 Over a year ago

It works, but I have .h files in the folder as well, so my problem might be too simplified, let me edit it and I will appreciate an updated answer

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

Amended appropriately.

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