Linux – recursive grep: exclude specific directories

command linegreplinux

I use recursive grep a lot to find source files with specific content.

grep -Rni "myfunc" .

On large codebases, this can get slow, so I use –incldue to restrict/whitelist extensions.

grep -Rni --include=*.java "myfunc" .

However, it would be more efficient to exclude (prune) whole subdirectories, I'm thinking:

grep -Rni --exclude=/.svn/ "myfunc" .

But the –exclude only supports file patterns like *.java above.
How can I exclude directories?

Best Answer

You might look into ack.

I've just started using it but it seems well-suited for this.

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Linux Robocopy Equivalent – Best Tools and Commands

It sounds like rsync is definitely what you are after. You do not need to set up an 'rsync server' to copy files from one machine to another. Rsync supports copying files over SFTP (SSH File Transfer) which most linux boxes have enabled already (if not manually disabled).

See Lifehacker's Mirror files across systems with rsync for more details:

Whether you want to backup your data, distribute files securely or mirror your working documents over the internet from the office to home, between computers on your local network, or from your computer to your web server, rsync can get the job done. Today we'll use rsync to mirror folders between a Mac and PC over a secure connection at the command line.

Rsync is free (as in speech) and cross platform, meaning it syncs files between operating systems (Windows/Cygwin, Mac OS, Linux); it works over ssh so it's encrypted and secure; unlike FTP it's incremental, so only the parts of changed files are transferred, not whole files, which makes it go like Speedy Gonzalez; and the fact that it's command line makes it scriptable and easily automated.

Linux – Grep not honoring –exclude-dir

I think it's probably because you're explicitly asking grep to search recursively from /var, and /var/run does not match a SUBDIRECTORY under /var.

See grep man page, which states:

--exclude-dir=glob
    [..] skip any subdirectory whose base name matches glob.  [..]

FIX

Therefore, to fix your command, change the exclude pattern, i.e.:

sudo grep -IR --exclude-dir="run" '45.78.157.165' /var | egrep -v '(audit|access)'

Best Answer

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Linux – Grep not honoring –exclude-dir

FIX

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