How to chmod all folders recursively excluding all folders within a specific folder?

Question

I would like to chmod all folders and subfolders within a specific folder, except I wish to exclude one folder (and all subfolders it contains).

What I have so far is a hack of the following solutions from StackOverflow:

• How to set chmod for a folder and all of its subfolders and files in Linux Ubuntu Terminal?
• Exclude directory from find . command

Here is what I came up with so far:

find . -type d \( -path ./node_modules \) -prune -o -print -exec chmod 644 {}\;

The problem is with or without -print I receive the following error :

find: missing argument to `-exec'

The following line has the expected results I need -exec chmod 644{}\; to read from:

find . -type d \( -path ./node_modules \) -prune -o -print

What am I missing on that line to pipe the data to -exec ?

Solution 1

Remove -print, escape ( and ) and add space after {}

find . -type d \( -path ./node_modules \) -prune -o -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Solution 2

After some playing around, I found that the following worked for me:

chmod all files recursively excluding files:

find . -not -path "*/node_modules*" -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

chmod all folders recursively excluding folder:

find . -not -path "*/node_modules*" -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Comments

[Kraang Prime]

Your solution worked. Thank you. I was in the middle of writing my solution when you posted this. Accepting as solution and upvoted.

[help-info.de]

Welcome to Super User! Before answering an old question having an accepted answer (look for green ✓) as well as other answers ensure your answer adds something new or is otherwise helpful in relation to them. Here is a guide on How to Answer. There is also tour for the site tour, and help center for the help center.

[help-info.de]

Please note the conventions for formatting How do I format my posts using Markdown or HTML.