# How to scan 2 directories at one time

**URL:** <https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/t/how-to-scan-2-directories-at-one-time/461>\
**Category:** Syft\
**Created:** [June 17, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/t/how-to-scan-2-directories-at-one-time/461 "2025-06-17T01:41:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![laoshanxi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/anchorecommunity.discourse.group/laoshanxi/32/285_2.png) [@laoshanxi](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/u/laoshanxi)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/t/how-to-scan-2-directories-at-one-time/461/1 "2025-06-17T01:41:19Z")

</div>

how to scan 2 directory at one time

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![popey](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/anchorecommunity.discourse.group/popey/32/429_2.png) [@popey](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/u/popey)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 10:03am UTC](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/t/how-to-scan-2-directories-at-one-time/461/2 "2025-06-17T10:03:49Z")

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Good question. On Linux I guess you can use bind mounts to aggregate multiple directories into one, but the paths might be a bit wonky. In the demo below I have two folders (`./dir-of-debs`, `./dir-of-rpms`) which contain different things. I use bind mounts to aggregate them all under `./mountpoint`.

e.g.

```bash
$ pwd
/home/alan/Temp/2-dirs-test
# We have two folders, but these could be anywhere on the filesystem
$ tree
.
├── dir-of-debs
│ ├── figlet_2.2.5-3_amd64.deb
│ ├── gzip_1.10-4ubuntu4_amd64.deb
│ └── openssl_3.0.2-0ubuntu1.19_amd64.deb
└── dir-of-rpms
    ├── spack-repos-0.19.1-0.20230207git25cb55c.1.mga9.noarch.rpm
    ├── toilet-0.3-lp152.1.3.x86_64.rpm
    └── zstd-gzip-1.5.7-3.1.x86_64.rpm
# Make a directory to mount each one under
$ mkdir -p ./mountpoint/debs ./mountpoint/rpms
# Use bind mounts to make the dir-of* folders appear under ./mountpoint
$ sudo mount -o bind ~/Temp/2-dirs-test/dir-of-debs ~/Temp/2-dirs-test/mountpoint/debs/
$ sudo mount -o bind ~/Temp/2-dirs-test/dir-of-rpms ~/Temp/2-dirs-test/mountpoint/rpms/
# Show that the debs and rpms now show up under ./mountpoint
$ tree
.
├── dir-of-debs
│ ├── figlet_2.2.5-3_amd64.deb
│ ├── gzip_1.10-4ubuntu4_amd64.deb
│ └── openssl_3.0.2-0ubuntu1.19_amd64.deb
├── dir-of-rpms
│ ├── spack-repos-0.19.1-0.20230207git25cb55c.1.mga9.noarch.rpm
│ ├── toilet-0.3-lp152.1.3.x86_64.rpm
│ └── zstd-gzip-1.5.7-3.1.x86_64.rpm
└── mountpoint
    ├── debs
    │ ├── figlet_2.2.5-3_amd64.deb
    │ ├── gzip_1.10-4ubuntu4_amd64.deb
    │ └── openssl_3.0.2-0ubuntu1.19_amd64.deb
    └── rpms
        ├── spack-repos-0.19.1-0.20230207git25cb55c.1.mga9.noarch.rpm
        ├── toilet-0.3-lp152.1.3.x86_64.rpm
        └── zstd-gzip-1.5.7-3.1.x86_64.rpm

```

Now if we run syft against the `./mountpoint` folder, we see the debs and rpms from the bind-mounted folders.

```bash
$ syft ./mountpoint/
 ✔ Indexed file system mountpoint
 ✔ Cataloged contents c7f7506e9fa9dcfb617f0294ba7b278f3d284a24dc4d71f2b5f59dec23c23ef8
   ├── ✔ Packages [6 packages]
   ├── ✔ Executables [0 executables]
   ├── ✔ File metadata [6 locations]
   └── ✔ File digests [6 files]
[0000] WARN no explicit name and version provided for directory source, deriving artifact ID from the given path (which is not ideal)
NAME VERSION TYPE
figlet 2.2.5-3 deb
gzip 1.10-4ubuntu4 deb
openssl 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.19 deb
spack-repos 0:0.19.1-0.20230207git25cb55c.1.mga9 rpm
toilet 0:0.3-lp152.1.3 rpm
zstd-gzip 0:1.5.7-3.1 rpm

```

If we look at an SBOM generated from this, we’ll see the `accessPath` shows the relative location under `./mountpoint`, e.g. `/debs` - as an absolute path.

```bash
$ syft ./mountpoint/ -o syft-json=mountpoint-demo.json

```

```bash
$ jq '.artifacts[] | select(.name == "figlet") | .locations[].accessPath' < mountpoint-demo.json
"/debs/figlet_2.2.5-3_amd64.deb"

```

This might be okay, in your case because whatever we did, it’s still identifying the packages correctly, even if the path is a bit weird.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laoshanxi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/anchorecommunity.discourse.group/laoshanxi/32/285_2.png) [@laoshanxi](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/u/laoshanxi)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://anchorecommunity.discourse.group/t/how-to-scan-2-directories-at-one-time/461/3 "2025-06-18T01:41:49Z")

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Thanks for the solution, will try this later.