How Can I Use A Combination Of `find`, `xargs`, And `tar` Commands To Recursively Search For And Archive All Files With A Specific Extension (e.g., .log) Within A Directory Tree, While Excluding Certain Subdirectories And Preserving The Original File Permissions And Timestamps?

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To archive all .log files within a directory tree while excluding specific subdirectories and preserving file permissions and timestamps, follow these steps using find, xargs, and tar:

  1. Use find to search for .log files recursively, excluding specified subdirectories.
  2. Pipe the results to xargs to efficiently pass the file list to tar.
  3. Create a tar archive with tar, ensuring permissions and timestamps are preserved.

Here's the command:

find /path/to/directory \
  -not -path "./subdir1/*" \
  -not -path "./subdir2/*" \
  -name "*.log" \
  -print0 | xargs -0 tar --preserve-permissions --create --file archive.tar

Explanation:

  • find /path/to/directory: Starts the search from the specified directory.
  • -not -path "./subdir/*": Excludes files in subdir1 and subdir2.
  • -name "*.log": Targets files ending with .log.
  • -print0: Outputs filenames followed by a NULL character for safe handling.
  • xargs -0: Reads NULL-terminated input and passes files to tar.
  • tar --preserve-permissions --create --file archive.tar: Creates an archive named archive.tar, preserving permissions and timestamps.

This command efficiently archives the desired files while respecting exclusions and preserving metadata.