Exclude a directory or multiple directories using find command

How to exclude a directory or multiple directories using find command?

Quick view on >> Find command and switches

Method 1 : Using the option “-prune -o”

We can exclude directories by using the help of “path“, “prune“, “o” and “print” switches with find command.
See the example:

# find ./ -path ./bit/* -prune -o -iname findme -print
./com/findme
./cry/findme

Method 2 : Using “! -path”

This is not much complicated compared to first method. See the example pasted below:

# find -iname findme ! -path ./bit/*
./com/findme
./cry/findme

Method 3 : Simple

Yes, it’s very simple. We can ignore the location by using inverse grep “grep -v” option.

See the example:

# find -iname findme|grep -v bit
./com/findme
./cry/findme

Excluding multiples directories

Similar way we can exclude multiple directories also. See the sample outputs:

# find -iname findme ! -path ./bit/* ! -path ./cry?*
./com/findme

Or

# find -iname findme | egrep -v "bit|cry"
./com/findme