What about nested directories?

When using the diff command with the --exclude option, it can also exclude nested directories. The exclusion pattern applies recursively, meaning that if you specify a directory to exclude, all its subdirectories and files will also be ignored in the comparison.

Example Usage for Nested Directories:

If you want to exclude a nested directory, you can specify the path relative to the directories being compared.

Example:

Assuming you have the following structure:

dir1/
  ├── folder1/
  │   └── file1.txt
  └── folder2/
      └── tests/
          └── test1.txt

dir2/
  ├── folder1/
  │   └── file1.txt
  └── folder2/
      └── tests/
          └── test2.txt

To exclude the tests directory in both dir1 and dir2, you would run:

diff -r --exclude='folder2/tests' dir1/ dir2/

Excluding All Instances of a Directory:

If you want to exclude all instances of a directory named tests regardless of its location, you can use a wildcard pattern:

diff -r --exclude='**/tests' dir1/ dir2/

This command will ignore any directory named tests found at any level within the directory structure being compared.