Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

Excluding a set of files from archiving

The -exclude [PATTEN] option will exclude files matched by wildcard patterns from being archived.

For example, to exclude all .txt files from archiving use the following command:

    $ tar -cf arch.tar * --exclude "*.txt"

Note that the pattern should be enclosed within quotes to prevent the shell from expanding it.

It is also possible to exclude a list of files provided in a list file with the -X flag as follows:

    $ cat list
    filea
    fileb
 
    $ tar -cf arch.tar * -X list

Now it excludes filea and fileb from archiving.