How can I copy all files in one tree to another tree except those matching a pattern?

Question

I have a directory tree under ./src/

I have another matching directory tree under ./work/

I'm trying to copy all the files in src to work, while keeping the directory structure and excluding all files that end in .java.

Here's my attempt so far:

find src -type f ! -iname *.java -exec cp {} work \;

This almost works, but all the files are put into the top level under work, instead of into the correct place in the directory tree.

How can I do this? (using bash on Mac OS X 10.9)

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 16 '14 at 15:58

3

tar cCf /source/path - --exclude "*.java" . | tar xCf /target/path -

answered Apr 16 '14 at 15:58

Chris S

That's some creative thinking! Worked like a charm, and I'd have never though to use tar. – Steve McLeod Apr 16 '14 at 16:00

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 17 '14 at 01:44

0

rsync -a --exclude='*.java' src/ work/

answered Apr 17 '14 at 01:44

Dennis Williamson

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 16 '14 at 16:04

-1

You can use {} multiple times. So:

find src -type f ! -iname '*.java' -exec cp {} work/{} \;

will try and preserve path (and fail, because the directory probably doesn't exist. - however you could probably do:

-exec mkdir -p `dirname {}` \;

However, for what you're doing, you probably want to use tar:

find src -type f ! -iname '*.java' | xargs tar cvf - | ( cd work && tar xvf - )

answered Apr 16 '14 at 16:04

Sobrique

Just tried running it. Seems to work, assuming you have both 'src' and 'work' in the cwd. (And the 'find' returns some files) ` – Sobrique Apr 16 '14 at 18:42
Typo on my part - mea culpa. – Chris S Apr 16 '14 at 18:46

3 Answers3