cp command to exclude certain files from being copied

Is there a way to use command 'cp' to copy a directory and exclude certain files/sub-directories within it?

Solution 1:

Use rsync:

rsync -avr --exclude='path1/to/exclude' --exclude='path2/to/exclude' source destination

Note that using source and source/ are different. A trailing slash means to copy the contents of the folder source into destination. Without the trailing slash, it means copy the folder source into destination.

Alternatively, if you have lots of directories (or files) to exclude, you can use --exclude-from=FILE, where FILE is the name of a file containing files or directories to exclude.

--exclude may also contain wildcards, such as --exclude=*/.svn*

Copied From: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2194500/749232

If you want to use cp itself:

find . -type f -not -iname '*/not-from-here/*' -exec cp '{}' '/dest/{}' ';'

This assumes the target directory structure is the same as the source's.

Copied From: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4586025/749232

Solution 2:

Late into the game but here is a very different solution using plain bash and cp: you can use a global file specification while having some files ignored.

Assume the directory contains the files:

$ ls *
listed1  listed2  listed3  listed4  unlisted1  unlisted2  unlisted3

Using the GLOBIGNORE variable:

$ export GLOBIGNORE='unlisted*'
$ ls *
listed1  listed2  listed3  listed4

Or with more specific exclusions:

$ export GLOBIGNORE='unlisted1:unlisted2'
$ ls *
listed1  listed2  listed3  listed4  unlisted3

Or using negative matches:

$ ls !(unlisted*)
listed1  listed2  listed3  listed4

This also supports several unmatched patterns:

$ ls !(unlisted1|unlisted2)
listed1  listed2  listed3  listed4  unlisted3

Solution 3:

Quick Start

Run:

rsync -av --exclude='path1/in/source' --exclude='path2/in/source' [source]/ [destination]

Notes

• -avr will create a new directory named [destination].
• source and source/ create different results:
  • source — copy the contents of source into destination.
  • source/ — copy the folder source into destination.
• To exclude many files:
  • --exclude-from=FILE — FILE is the name of a file containing other files or directories to exclude.
• --exclude may also contain wildcards:
  • e.g. --exclude=*/.svn*

Modified from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2194500/749232

Example

Starting folder structure:

.
├── destination
└── source
    ├── fileToCopy.rtf
    └── fileToExclude.rtf

Run:

rsync -av --exclude='fileToCopy.rtf' source/ destination

Ending folder structure:

.
├── destination
│   └── fileToExclude.rtf
└── source
    ├── fileToCopy.rtf
    └── fileToExclude.rtf