linux zip and exclude dir via bash/shell script - linux

Question

I am trying to write a bash/shell script to zip up a specific folder and ignore certain sub-dirs in that folder.
This is the folder I am trying to zip "sync_test5":
My bash script generates an ignore list (based on) and calls the zip function like this:
#!/bin/bash
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BASE_DIR="/home/www-data/public_html"
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR="sync_test5"
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR="dir_to_ignore dir2_to_ignore"
ignorelist=""
if [ "$SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR" != "" ];
then
for ignoredir in $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR
do
ignorelist="$ignorelist $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$ignoredir/**\*"
done
fi
FILE="$SYNC_BACKUP_DIR/$DATETIMENOW.website.zip"
cd $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BASE_DIR;
zip -r $FILE $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR -x $ignorelist >/dev/null
echo "Done"
Now this script runs without error, however it is not ignoring/excluding the dirs I've specified.
So, I had the shell script output the command it tried to run, which was:
zip -r 12-08-2014_072810.website.zip sync_test5 -x sync_test5/dir_to_ignore/**\* sync_test5/dir2_to_ignore/**\*
Now If I run the above command directly in putty like this, it works:
So, why doesn't my shell script exclude working as intended? the command that is being executed is identical (in shell and putty directly).

Answer 1

Because backslash quotings in a variable after word splitting are not evaluated.
If you have a='123\4', echo $a would give
123\4
But if you do it directly like echo 123\4, you'd get
1234
Clearly the arguments you pass with the variable and without the variables are different.
You probably just meant to not quote your argument with backslash:
ignorelist="$ignorelist $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$ignoredir/***"
Btw, what actual works is a non-evaluated glob pattern:
zip -r 12-08-2014_072810.website.zip sync_test5 -x 'sync_test5/dir_to_ignore/***' 'sync_test5/dir2_to_ignore/***'
You can verify this with
echo zip -r 12-08-2014_072810.website.zip sync_test5 -x sync_test5/dir_to_ignore/**\* sync_test5/dir2_to_ignore/**\*
And this is my suggestion:
#!/bin/bash
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BASE_DIR="/home/www-data/public_html"
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR="sync_test5"
SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR=("dir_to_ignore" "dir2_to_ignore")
IGNORE_LIST=()
if [[ -n $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR ]]; then
for IGNORE_DIR in "${SYNC_WEB_ROOT_IGNORE_DIR[#]}"; do
IGNORE_LIST+=("$SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$IGNORE_DIR/***") ## "$SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$IGNORE_DIR/*" perhaps is enough?
done
fi
FILE="$SYNC_BACKUP_DIR/$DATETIMENOW.website.zip" ## Where is $SYNC_BACKUP_DIR set?
cd "$SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BASE_DIR";
zip -r "$FILE" "$SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR" -x "${IGNORE_LIST[#]}" >/dev/null
echo "Done"

Answer 2

This is what I ended up with:
#!/bin/bash
# This script zips a directory, excluding specified files, types and subdirectories.
# while zipping the directory it excludes hidden directories and certain file types
[[ "`/usr/bin/tty`" == "not a tty" ]] && . ~/.bash_profile
DIRECTORY=$(cd `dirname $0` && pwd)
if [[ -z $1 ]]; then
echo "Usage: managed_directory_compressor /your-directory/ zip-file-name"
else
DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS=${1%/}
ZIPPED_FILE="$2.zip"
COMPRESS_IGNORE_FILE=("\.git" "*.zip" "*.csv" "*.json" "gulpfile.js" "*.rb" "*.bak" "*.swp" "*.back" "*.merge" "*.txt" "*.sh" "bower_components" "node_modules")
COMPRESS_IGNORE_DIR=("bower_components" "node_modules")
IGNORE_LIST=("*/\.*" "\.* "\/\.*"")
if [[ -n $COMPRESS_IGNORE_FILE ]]; then
for IGNORE_FILES in "${COMPRESS_IGNORE_FILE[#]}"; do
IGNORE_LIST+=("$DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS/$IGNORE_FILES/*")
done
for IGNORE_DIR in "${COMPRESS_IGNORE_DIR[#]}"; do
IGNORE_LIST+=("$DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS/$IGNORE_DIR/")
done
fi
zip -r "$ZIPPED_FILE" "$DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS" -x "${IGNORE_LIST[#]}" # >/dev/null
# echo zip -r "$ZIPPED_FILE" "$DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS" -x "${IGNORE_LIST[#]}" # >/dev/null
echo $DIRECTORY_TO_COMPRESS "compressed as" $ZIPPED_FILE.
fi

Answer 3

After a few trial and error, I have managed to fix this problem by changing this line:
ignorelist="$ignorelist $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$ignoredir/**\*"
to:
ignorelist="$ignorelist $SYNC_WEB_ROOT_BACKUP_DIR/$ignoredir/***"
Not sure why this worked, but it does :)