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diff has an option --recursive (-r) to do a comparison between two directories (the files inside them). Is there a way to make diff ignore certain sub-directories (eg: .svn)?

$ diff -r src1/ src2/
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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
138

Add --exclude=".svn" as an option like so:

$ diff -r --exclude=".svn" src1/ src2/
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4
  • 7
    If you want to exclude multiple items just add another --exclude parameter.
    – JonMR
    Jul 12, 2011 at 16:02
  • 19
    If you don't want to type --exclude every time use -x ".svn"
    – acorello
    Aug 14, 2012 at 9:03
  • 1
    --exclude option is also not working on mac os. -x ".svn" works well.
    – alpert
    Mar 29, 2016 at 11:13
  • --exclude works well on macOS 10.15.2, /usr/bin/diff 2.8.1
    – Pavel Vlasov
    Mar 9, 2021 at 13:00
16 
  diff --exclude=.svn ...
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