linuxshellunixchown

Unix command to exclude a particular directory and its contents using chown, while permission to other directories are applied

I'm using the below command to change the ownership (using chown) of sets directories and files present under a /opt/var and trying to exclude .snapshot directory and its contents.

find /opt/var/ ! -name '.snapshot' | xargs -I {} chown 2000:2000 {};

However, it only excludes .snapshot but its contents get permission applied.

Am I missing anything here? I am trying to achieve in one line.

Solution

  • First of all, chmod is for changing the permissions while chown is for changing the owners. Anyways, to exclude a directory, use -path option:

    find /opt/var/ ! -path '/opt/var/.snapshot*' | xargs -I {} chown 2000:2000 {}

    Or

    find /opt/var/ ! -path '*.snapshot*' | xargs -I {} chown 2000:2000 {}