Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

Excluding files from the disk usage calculation

The --exclude and -exclude-from options cause du to exclude files from the disk usage calculation.

• The -exclude option can be used with wildcards or a single filename:

        $ du --exclude "WILDCARD" DIRECTORY

Consider this example:

        # Excludes all .txt files from calculation
        $ du --exclude "*.txt" *
        # Exclude temp.txt from calculation
        $ du --exclude "temp.txt" *

• The --exclude option will exclude one file or files that match a pattern. The -exclude-from option allows more files or patterns to be excluded. Each filename or pattern must be on a single line.

        $ ls *.txt >EXCLUDE.txt
        $ ls *.odt >>EXCLUDE.txt
        # EXCLUDE.txt contains a list of all .txt and .odt files. 
 $ du --exclude-from EXCLUDE.txt ...