Is there a way to limit the find command from searching in subdirectories below the directory the search is started in?

Hi:

The GNU find command has a maxdepth option which controls how many directory levels to search.

If you don't have it, you can use find's -prune option to search only the top directory:

find . \( -type d ! -name . -prune \) -o \( -type f -print \) | awk ' gsub("^./","") '

If you are going to look only at the top directory, have you considered using ls -la with some sort of script?

Refer the options -maxdepth and -mindepth of find command

man find

-maxdepth levels
Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer)
levels of directories below the command line argu­
ments. `-maxdepth 0' means only apply the tests
and actions to the command line arguments.

-mindepth levels
Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less
than levels (a non-negative integer). `-mindepth
1' means process all files except the command line
arguments.

Jc