I wanted to execute a script that picks out a random directory path:
find / -type d | shuf -n1
Unfortunately I get error messages about the prohibition of entering certain directories.
How can I exclude a directory from the search with find ?
asked Mar 29, 2015 at 23:13
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3 Answers
To exclude specific paths, on Linux:
find / -path /sys -prune -o -path /proc -prune -o -type d
Another approach is to tell find not to recurse under different filesystems.
find / -xdev -type d
You could also use locate to query a database of file names (usually updated nightly, you could also update it manually using updatedb) instead of the live system.
locate '*' | shuf -n 1
answered Mar 29, 2015 at 23:24
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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great, short and insightful. find / -xdev -type d itself works, but find / -xdev -type d | shuf -n 1 displays error messages.Abdul Al Hazred– Abdul Al Hazred2015-03-29 23:32:17 +00:00Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 23:32
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1@AbdulAlHazred you haven't said what messages but I'm guessing they're "permission denied" errors. Either run the command as root or just ignore the errors by sending them to stderr:
find / -xdev -type d 2>/dev/null.2015-03-29 23:42:33 +00:00Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 23:42 -
1Couldn't you just do
find / \( -path /sys -o -path /proc \) -prune -o -type dWould be useful if you want to exclude more dirs like/devor/tmp, etc.BrainStone– BrainStone2018-06-30 14:04:07 +00:00Commented Jun 30, 2018 at 14:04
with GNU find you may also use regex options, e. g. like this:
find / -regextype posix-extended -regex "/(sys|srv|proc)" -prune -o -type d
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1that's the nicest approach, by far (rant: so there's a gnu option that makes find / usable on gnu linux like on any other OS that didn't have a shitty /proc implementation ;-)Florian Heigl– Florian Heigl2019-09-07 10:17:55 +00:00Commented Sep 7, 2019 at 10:17
One method is to only include real filesystems.
Determine all mount points for real filesystems, and put them on one line:
$ realfs=$(df -x tmpfs -x devtmpfs | tail -n +2 | awk '{print $6;}' | xargs)
$ echo $realfs
/ /home /dos /Data
Run find only against those mount points.
$ find ${realfs} -type d |& grep -v "Permission denied" | shuf -n1
/Data/share/source/pan2/.git/refs/tags
(|& is a bashism added to 4.x -- works for me on 4.4.)
