This comp.os.linux.misc poster wanted to exclude multiple directories from "du"'s totals. Answers pointed out that he could put the list the files to exclude in another file and use -X filename. Wildcard patterns are allowed in this file, and also can be used with --exclude (quote wildcards):

du -s . --exclude 'b*'

You can also use multiple --excludes:

du -s . --exclude source --exclude old

Don't make the mistake the poster did of using the real path

du -s . --exclude /home/mylogin/old 
# WRONG!
 

Older Unixes (SCO OSR5) "du" aren't so flexible, and lack all these nice options. Bsd has a -I that works like Linux's --exclude, including wildcards.

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