Bash capturing output of find with exclusion into the While loop - bash

Question

I made a script that looks for the content of a folder recursively, excluding some paths, then asks for an action to take on each line of the results.
The find command on its own is working fine and exclude paths as expected. It looks something like that:
$SOURCE="FOLDER/"
$EXCLUDESTRING="! -path \"FOLDER/*/.svn/*\" ! -path \"FOLDER/uploads/*\" ! -path \"FOLDER/ai-cache/*\""
find "$SOURCE"* $EXCLUDESTRING # uploads and ai-cache folders are not included in the results
But when I pipe the result to the While loop it does not consider the exclusions.
find "$SOURCE"* $EXCLUDESTRING -print0 | while read -d $'\0' file_1
do
echo $file_1 # uploads and ai-cache folders are included in the results
if statement ...
more commands ...
done
I want to mention that the goal is to find the desired files and folders and process them instantaneously without using an array.
UPDATE
For those who are interested in my script (Step by step unidirectional sync) or could test (it will be very appreciated) Here is a more detailed copy:
#!/bin/bash
excludepath=( "*/.svn/*" "uploads/*" "design/*" "ai-cache/*" )
bold=`tput bold`
normal=`tput sgr0`
validsource="false"
while [ "$validsource" == "false" ]
do
echo ""
echo "Specify project to compare :"
echo -n "/home/myaccount/public_html/projects/"
read -e project
project=`echo "$project" | sed -e "s/\/*$//" `
projectpath="/home/myaccount/public_html/projects/$project"
source="$(readlink -f $projectpath)/"
if [ -d "$source" ];then
validsource="true"
else
echo "The working copy cannot be found ($projectpath)."
fi
done
echo "Compare project with folder :"
read -e target
excludestring=""
for i in "${excludepath[#]}"
do
excludestring="$excludestring ! -path \"$source$i\""
done
echo ""
echo "______________________________________________"
echo ""
echo "COMPARISON IN PROGRESS ..."
echo "______________________________________________"
echo ""
echo "List of paths excluded from the comparison: ${excludepath[#]}"
echo "Executed command : find \"$source\"* $excludestring"
echo ""
liveexclude=()
find "$source"* $excludestring -print0 | while read -d $'\0' file_1
do
file=$( echo "$file_1" | sed "s,$source,,g" ) # Strip base path
file_2=$( echo "$file_1" | sed "s,$source,$target,g" ) # Getting file path in $target
dir=$( dirname "$file_2" | sed "s,$target,,g" )
dir_1=$( dirname "$file_1" )
dir_2=$( dirname "$file_2" )
#Check for live excluded folders
process="true"
for i in "${liveexclude[#]}"
do
if [[ $file_1 == "$i"* ]]
then
process="false"
break
fi
done
if [ "$process" == "true" ];then
if [ -d "$file_1" ];then
if [ ! -d "$file_2" ] # Checking if sub-dir exists in $target
then
while [ "$confirm" != "y" ] && [ "$confirm" != "n" ]
do
echo ""
echo "${bold}Folder${normal} \"$file\" doesn't exist."
echo -n "Would you like to ${bold}create it and its entire contents${normal} ? (y/n) "
read -e confirm </dev/tty
done
if [ "$confirm" == "y" ];then
mkdir -p $file_2 # Creating if sub-dir missing
cp -r "$file_1/"* "$file_2"
fi
confirm=""
liveexclude+=("$file_2")
fi
else
if [ -f "$file_1" ];then
if [ -f "$file_2" ] # Checking if file exists in $target
then
cksum_file_1=$( cksum "$file_1" | cut -f 1 -d " " ) # Get cksum of file in $source
cksum_file_2=$( cksum "$file_2" | cut -f 1 -d " " ) # Get cksum of file in $target
if [ $cksum_file_1 -ne $cksum_file_2 ] # Check if cksum matches
then
while [ "$confirm" != "y" ] && [ "$confirm" != "n" ]
do
if [ "$file_1" -nt "$file_2" ]
then
echo ""
echo "${bold}File${normal} \"$file\" is not updated."
echo -n "Would you like to ${bold}replace${normal} it ? (y/n) "
else
echo ""
echo "${bold}File${normal} \"$file\" was modified."
echo "${bold}CAUTION${normal}: The file \"$file_2\" is newer than the file \"$file_1\""
echo -n "Would you still ${bold}overwrite${normal} it ? (y/n) "
fi
read -e confirm </dev/tty
done
if [ "$confirm" == "y" ];then
cp "$file_1" "$file_2" # Copy if cksum mismatch
fi
confirm=""
fi
else
while [ "$confirm" != "y" ] && [ "$confirm" != "n" ]
do
echo ""
echo "${bold}File${normal} \"$file\" doesn't exist."
echo -n "Would you like to ${bold}copy${normal} it ? (y/n) "
read -e confirm </dev/tty
done
if [ "$confirm" == "y" ];then
cp "$file_1" "$file_2" # Copy if file does not exist.
fi
confirm=""
fi
fi
fi
fi
done
PS. We use this script for applying new changes on an existing project if a detailed check is required.

Answer 1

Don't put your commands in a string, but in an array. And don't use a dollar in the left-hand side of an assignment (we're not in Perl/PHP). Oh, and avoid using upper case variable names. It looks ugly; it seems you're shouting the variable's name; but more seriously it might clash with reserved names (like PATH, LINES, GROUPS, USERS, etc.); if you stick to lower case variable names, you're on the safe side (and it's prettier!).
source=FOLDER/
excludeary=( \! -path "FOLDER/*/.svn/*" \! -path "FOLDER/uploads/*" \! -path "FOLDER/ai-cache/*" )
find "$source" "${excludeary[#]}" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file_1
do
echo "$file_1" # uploads and ai-cache folders are included in the results
if statement ...
more commands ...
done
Edit. Here's a small example:
$ mkdir Test
$ cd Test
$ mkdir -p {excl,incl}/{1,2}
$ touch {excl,incl}/{1,2}/{a,b}
$ tree
.
|-- excl
| |-- 1
| | |-- a
| | `-- b
| `-- 2
| |-- a
| `-- b
`-- incl
|-- 1
| |-- a
| `-- b
`-- 2
|-- a
`-- b
6 directories, 8 files
$ source=~/Test
$ excludeary=( \! -path "$source/excl/*" )
$ find "$source" "${excludeary[#]}"
/home/gniourf/Test
/home/gniourf/Test/excl
/home/gniourf/Test/incl
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1/a
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1/b
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/a
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/b
That's how ! -path works. See, you still have the /home/gniourf/Test/excl folder (but not its children). Maybe you want -prune instead:
$ pruneary=( \! \( -type d -name excl -prune \) )
$ find "$source" "${pruneary[#]}"
/home/gniourf/Test
/home/gniourf/Test/incl
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1/a
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/1/b
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/a
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/b
Or to exclude all the 1 directories together with the excl directory:
$ excludeary=( \! \( -type d \( -name excl -o -path '*/1' \) -prune \) )
$ find "$source" "${excludeary[#]}"
/home/gniourf/Test
/home/gniourf/Test/incl
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/a
/home/gniourf/Test/incl/2/b

Answer 2

All of the necessary exclusions worked for me when I removed all of the double quotes and put everything in single quotes:
EXCLUDESTRING='! -path FOLDER/*/.svn/* ! -path \"FOLDER/uploads/* ! -path FOLDER/ai-cache/*'