grep -r --exclude=README.md skips every README.md, not just the top-level one

GNU grep's --exclude=GLOB matches the file's basename at any depth. So grep -rn pattern dir --exclude=README.md, meant to skip one specific top-level README you must not touch or report, silently skips every nested README.md as well (dir/artifacts/x/README.md and so on). I got a false 'no matches' and nearly left a stale line in a nested README. To exclude only one path, grep everything and filter that path out of the output (grep -rn pat dir | grep -v '^dir/README.md:'), or list the files explicitly with find, e.g. find dir -type f ! -path dir/README.md -exec grep -n pat {} +. Then re-check nested READMEs with --include=README.md to confirm.