I would like to grep all files except some file types?

Question

How do I recursively grep files within a given folders except a couple file types?

For example, I'm looking for a string within my workspace folder but it ends up searching inside sql files and generates serialized strings.

So in this case, I'd like to grep the workspace folder except sql files.

I'm preferably looking for a one-liner if possible.

Be aware that Linux and Unix and unix-a-likes don't really have "file types" in the way you seem to want. It's only by convention that file names have a ".c" or ".txt" or ".sql" suffix - those suffixes aren't even Windows-style "extensions", much less indicators that SQL or text or C source code live inside the files. — , Feb 08 '12 at 23:35

score 76 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 08 '12 at 23:57

76

If you have GNU grep you can use the --exclude=GLOB option, like

grep -r --exclude='*.sql' pattern dir/

answered Feb 08 '12 at 23:57

jw013

1

How to exclude a single file? – Nayeem Oct 08 '15 at 11:56
1

@Nayeem, https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/204614/run-grep-excluding-a-file-in-a-specific-path – cp.engr Jan 11 '19 at 17:27

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 08 '12 at 23:17

11

This will do that for you and exclude .sql and .txt files:

find /some/dir -type f ! -name '*\.sql' ! -name '*.txt' -print0 | xargs -0 grep 'foobar'

However it sounds like ack would be a far better tool for what you're trying to do:

ack -a --nosql 'foobar' /some/dir

answered Feb 08 '12 at 23:17

Mark McKinstry

Sorry, I didn't see the 'ack' part and put it in my answer, which is now deleted. – Chance Feb 09 '12 at 15:16
Another user notes that ack - a --nobinary includes binary files – Michael Mrozek Nov 15 '12 at 18:23
The backslash in the filename pattern is not needed. – Kusalananda May 15 '18 at 17:09

2 Answers2