linuxcommand-line-interfacepath-findinggnu-findutils

Linux CLI find dir paths without their children - only parent paths as a result

I have this dir tree:

/tmp/find-test/
├── one
│   ├── abc
│   │   ├── one
│   │   └── two
│   └── def
│       ├── one
│       └── two
└── two
    ├── abc
    │   ├── one
    │   └── two
    └── def
        ├── one
        └── two

and the same for find-test2

/tmp/find-test2/
├── one
│   ├── abc
│   │   ├── one
│   │   └── two
│   └── def
│       ├── one
│       └── two
└── two
    ├── abc
    │   ├── one
    │   └── two
    └── def
        ├── one
        └── two

If I issue:

find /tmp -ipath "*find-test*" -type d

I get:

/tmp/find-test
/tmp/find-test/two
/tmp/find-test/two/def
/tmp/find-test/two/def/two
/tmp/find-test/two/def/one
...
/tmp/find-test2
/tmp/find-test2/two
/tmp/find-test2/two/def
/tmp/find-test2/two/def/two
/tmp/find-test2/two/def/one
...

but I would like to get as a result only parent dirs without their children. The desired result should be just these two parent paths:

/tmp/find-test
/tmp/find-test2

and similarly if I issue command:

find /tmp -ipath "*one*" -type d

I would like to get only:

/tmp/find-test/one
/tmp/find-test/two/abc/one
/tmp/find-test/two/def/one
/tmp/find-test2/one
/tmp/find-test2/two/abc/one
/tmp/find-test2/two/def/one

Please note it is without for example:

/tmp/find-test/one/abc/one

since it is already held by

/tmp/find-test/one

script to replicate dir trees:

mkdir -p /tmp/find-test1/{one,two}/{abc,def}/{one,two}
mkdir -p /tmp/find-test2/{one,two}/{abc,def}/{one,two}

and find commands:

find /tmp -ipath "*find-test*" -type d
find /tmp -ipath "*one*" -type d

I would like to ask how to use the find command to get the desired result containing only parent paths matching the pattern.

I need to use -ipath switch so I can match paths with more conditions but still only the parent paths are desired result.

I'm using sh and bash.

Solution

  • Use -prune. I used your command to replicate the dir tree and issued your commands with -prune, which resulted in:

    $ find 2>&- /tmp -ipath '*find-test*' -type d -prune
/tmp/find-test2
/tmp/find-test1
$ find 2>&- /tmp -ipath '*one*' -type d -prune
/tmp/find-test2/two/def/one
/tmp/find-test2/two/abc/one
/tmp/find-test2/one
/tmp/find-test1/two/def/one
/tmp/find-test1/two/abc/one
/tmp/find-test1/one