BASH copy all files except one

Question

I would like to copy all files out of a dir except for one named Default.png. It seems that there are a number of ways to do this. What seems the most effective to you?

Why do you need it to skip that file, as opposed to just deleting it after copying it? Does it exist in the target directory already? — Lasse V. Karlsen, Aug 21 '09 at 18:48
Yes a file with the same name is already living in the target dir. — Joe Cannatti, Aug 21 '09 at 20:53
@LasseV.Karlsen: Or you could want to save the time of copying it, if it's a large file. I'm interested in this but excluding a directory rather than a file. — Nikana Reklawyks, Nov 20 '12 at 16:13

Jonathan Holloway · Answer 1 · 2009-08-21T18:47:38.963

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Should be as follows:

cp -r !(Default.png) /dest

If copying to a folder nested in the current folder (called example in the case below) you need to omit that directory also:

cp -r !(Default.png|example) /example

edited Aug 21 '09 at 18:47

answered Aug 21 '09 at 18:40

Jonathan Holloway

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This produces -bash: !: event not found – Joe Cannatti Aug 21 '09 at 18:46
Are you copying the files to a folder nested within the folder your copying from? – Jonathan Holloway Aug 21 '09 at 18:48
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This requires `shopt -s extglob` to work, if it has been disabled. – Barry Kelly Aug 21 '09 at 18:52
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It seems that OS X needs to use `shopt -s extglob` as described by @BarryKelly. With that, it works perfectly. – Kat Jul 08 '14 at 23:45
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Years on Bash and didn't know about `!()`... Beautiful! For those that --like me-- feel it is time to study/review [bash](https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/bash/manual/bash.html), here are the relevant links related to this question/answer: [shopt/extglob](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/The-Shopt-Builtin.html) and [the pattern](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Pattern-Matching.html#Pattern-Matching). – Brandt Nov 26 '19 at 13:45
Just because I didn't quite grasp, at first, how to use this: `cp -r $src_path/!($file) $dest_path` would be equivalent to `cp $src_path/* $dest_path/ --exclude $file` if cp had such an argument. – mazunki Jul 11 '20 at 21:01

score 96 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 18 '14 at 06:07

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rsync has been my cp/scp replacement for a long time:

rsync -av from/ to/ --exclude=Default.png

-a, --archive               archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
-v, --verbose               increase verbosity

edited Mar 18 '14 at 06:07

czerasz

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answered Aug 21 '09 at 18:59

matja

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If I want to exclude two different files, how do I use this? – Pulkit Bansal Nov 14 '18 at 09:05
multiple --exclude= arguments are supported. And don't forget the `-r` arg if you're syncing directories – Rian Sanderson Apr 27 '19 at 06:34
Note that it also copies hidden files (eg .git) and in case of same files overwrites them – Islam Murtazaev Nov 13 '20 at 10:35
this"rsync -aP --exclude=backup /root/jenkins_api/* /root/jenkins_api/backup" does not work when there is no files in /root/jenkins_api/**.Is there a workaround to skip when no files are found ? – Youssef Boudaya Jun 24 '21 at 15:27

John Kugelman · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-22T00:45:25.197

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Simple, if src/ only contains files:

find src/ ! -name Default.png -exec cp -t dest/ {} +

If src/ has sub-directories, this omits them, but does copy files inside of them:

find src/ -type f ! -name Default.png -exec cp -t dest/ {} +

If src/ has sub-directories, this does not recurse into them:

find src/ -type f -maxdepth 1 ! -name Default.png -exec cp -t dest/ {} +

edited Sep 22 '14 at 00:45

answered Aug 21 '09 at 18:59

John Kugelman

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This turns out to be the best for me because it would appear that OS X ships without glob enabled. – Joe Cannatti Aug 21 '09 at 20:54
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@Max `\;` executes the command once per file. `+` runs the command once and passes all of the file names to it at once (subject to the command line length limit). `+` is a bit more efficient in general. – John Kugelman Sep 22 '14 at 00:48

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 21 '09 at 19:01

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cp `ls | grep -v Default.png` destdir

answered Aug 21 '09 at 19:01

Will Hartung

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This is more likely to produce errors than do what you intend. – Dennis Williamson Aug 22 '09 at 01:40
ok @DennisWilliamson, can you explain why? – arthur.sw Mar 02 '21 at 16:17
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@arthur.sw For one thing, it doesn't account for files with spaces in it. As with many things with the shell, there's a bunch of edge cases that fail. 95%+ of the time, this stuff just works. Just need to be conscious of the caveats. Spaces in file names jump working with the shell from trivial to painful. – Will Hartung Mar 02 '21 at 17:50
Another reason is that since there are no anchors in the regex and the dot isn't escaped it would also match a file named `myDefaultXpng.OLD` for example. – Dennis Williamson Jun 27 '22 at 13:11

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 10 '14 at 10:25

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I'd just do:

cp srcdir/* destdir/ ; rm destdir/Default.png

unless the files are big. Otherwise use e.g.

find srcdir -type f/ |grep -v Default.png$ |xargs -ILIST cp LIST destdir/

edited Mar 10 '14 at 10:25

linkyndy

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answered Aug 21 '09 at 18:41

nos

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The first command is not what the OP asked for. If `Default.png` exists in the two directories, it will replace the one in `destdir` by the one in `srcdir`, then delete the copied `Default.png`. Instead, the OP wants to keep the `Default.png` that already exists in `destdir`. – SnowFrog May 22 '17 at 11:34
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how about default.png already exists in destdir? Your solutioun won't work. – Iman Mohamadi Jun 03 '18 at 08:10

Super Kai - Kazuya Ito · Answer 6 · 2022-01-12T23:51:25.427

Jan, 2022 Update:

This is the easiest way(It's not complicated).

First, make "temp" folder:

mkdir temp

Second, copy all files from your original folder to "temp" folder:

"-R" flag can copy exactly all files including "Symbolic Links"

cp -R originalFolder/. temp/

Third, remove "Default.png" from "temp" folder:

rm temp/Default.png

Finally, copy all files from "temp" folder to your destination folder:

cp -R temp/. destinationFolder/

In addition, this is the shortest way without "temp" folder:

cp -R originalFolder/!(Default.png) destinationFolder/

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 11 '22 at 13:48

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Below script worked for me

cp -r `ls -A | grep -v 'skip folder/file name'` destination

answered Mar 11 '22 at 13:48

monofal

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score -1 · Answer 8 · answered May 22 '13 at 07:25

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# chattr +i /files_to_exclude
# cp source destination
# chattr -i /files_to_exclude

answered May 22 '13 at 07:25

Ivan Grynenko

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score -3 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 02 '20 at 00:31

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use the shell's expansion parameter with regex

cp /<path>/[^not_to_copy_file]* .

Everything will be copied except for the not_to_copy_file

-- if something is wrong with this. please Specify !

answered Apr 02 '20 at 00:31

alex

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Welcome to SO. Unfortunately your answer is not correct. The bracket expresssion (`[...]`) contains a set of characters to match, while a leading `^` will cause a match of the complement of the listed characters. In the following example, neither file will be listed: `touch not_to_copy_file to_copy_file ; ls [^not_to_copy_file]*` because all filenames starting with any of the following characters will be excluded: `_cefilnopty`. – rtx13 Apr 02 '20 at 04:56

BASH copy all files except one

9 Answers9

Jan, 2022 Update:

Linked