Zip command for excluding directories and files

Question

i'm trying to use this ssh command in centos 5 to zip up a directory full up folders and files yet exclude the examples below. it's not working.

zip -r file.zip * -x dir1 -x dir2 -x file1 -x file2

or this one

zip -r file.zip * -x "dir1" -x "dir2" -x "file1" -x "file2"

It still just zips up the whole directory and everything it in. I don't want dir1 dir2 file1 file2.

I need to know the right -x syntax for the exclude functions to work.

Answer 1

For my particular system in order to exclude a directory I had to put quotes around my excluded directories and it worked like a charm:

zip -r myarchive.zip target -x "target/exclude1/*" "target/exclude2/*"

Notes:

-- this excluded both the directory to exclude and all files inside it.

-- You must use the full path to the directories you want to include and exclude!

-- As long as the excludes are at the end of the line you do not need the @ symbol

Answer 2

The -x option is a bit strange; you list the files, starting with -x, and ending with an @ sign:

   zip file.zip -r * -x dir1 dir2 file1 file2 @

I also seriously doubt you want \ in your filenames on a Unix system … make sure your paths are OK. / is the usual path separator.

Example:

mkdir tmp5
cd tmp5
touch a b c d e f g
zip foo.zip -r * -x e f g @
  adding: a (stored 0%)
  adding: b (stored 0%)
  adding: c (stored 0%)
  adding: d (stored 0%)

With subdirectories, you can easily omit their contents using a wildcard, but it seems that the * causes the directory itself to be included (empty):

mkdir x y z
touch {a,b,c} {x,y,z}/{a,b,c}
zip foo.zip -r * -x c y y/* z z/* @
  adding: a (stored 0%)
  adding: b (stored 0%)
  adding: x/ (stored 0%)
  adding: x/b (stored 0%)
  adding: x/a (stored 0%)
  adding: x/c (stored 0%)
  adding: y/ (stored 0%)
  adding: z/ (stored 0%)

You might to better to omit the * and explicitly list those things you do want included…

zip core-latest-$version.zip -r cp images include mobile stats \
    -x cp/includes/configure.php @

(the \ at the end just continues to the next line; you can put it all on one line without the trailing \)