How do I exclude a folder when performing file operations i.e. cp, mv, rm and chown etc. in Linux

Question

How do you exclude a folder when performing file operations i.e. cp etc.

I would currently use the wild card * to apply file operation to all, but I need to exclude one

Answer 1

Combine multiple small sharp tools of unix: To exclude the folder "foo"

% ls -d * | grep -v foo | xargs -d "\n" chown -R Camsoft