How to exclude files and directories from grep

Recursive grep searches can surface matches from generated logs, dependency trees, and cache directories before the source files that need review. Excluding those paths keeps the result focused on files the operator owns, especially in source trees that include vendor code or noisy runtime output.

GNU grep applies –exclude to file basenames during recursive searches and applies –exclude-dir to directory basenames. Quote shell globs such as *.log so the shell passes the pattern to grep instead of expanding it before grep starts.

The sample tree contains two source files that should remain visible, one vendor file that should be skipped, and one log file that should be skipped. Successful output lists only the source files after both exclusions are present.

1. Create sample files with matches in source, vendor, and log paths.

   $ mkdir -p site/src site/vendor site/cache
   $ cat > site/src/app.conf <<'EOF'
   mode=production
   token=enabled
   EOF
   $ cat > site/src/feature.conf <<'EOF'
   feature=search
   token=feature-a
   EOF
   $ cat > site/vendor/plugin.conf <<'EOF'
   plugin=vendor
   token=vendor-default
   EOF
   $ cat > site/cache/runtime.log <<'EOF'
   INFO cache warmup
   token=debug-only
   EOF

2. Skip log files while searching the tree recursively.

   $ grep -R -n --exclude='*.log' 'token' site
   site/src/app.conf:2:token=enabled
   site/src/feature.conf:2:token=feature-a
   site/vendor/plugin.conf:2:token=vendor-default

   –exclude='*.log' skips the log file, but the vendor file still appears because its directory has not been excluded.

3. Verify that adding the vendor directory exclusion keeps only source-owned matches.

   $ grep -R -n --exclude='*.log' --exclude-dir=vendor 'token' site
   site/src/app.conf:2:token=enabled
   site/src/feature.conf:2:token=feature-a

   Repeat –exclude-dir for multiple directory names, such as –exclude-dir=vendor –exclude-dir=cache.

4. Remove the sample tree after testing.

   $ rm -r site