How do I use a shell command to tar a list of files and folders with exclusions

Hi,

How do I tar a list of files and folders (all in the same directory) with the exclusion of a single directory (which contains a huge amount of data)

From stackoverflow

• tar --exclude=PATTERN xvzf nameof.tar.gz ./*

  PATTERN can be the directory name. GNU tar.

  deepwell : If you have part of a file/dir name that matches PATTERN, it will also get excluded from being backed up. This is a little dangerous.

• I think it may depend on your version of tar. You can use 'man tar' or 'tar --help' to check for details on your version. But the options I found are:

  tar -X filename: excludes anything listed in the given text file
  tar --exclude=pattern: excludes anything matching the pattern

• Hey thanks for the superfast response!

  1 quick question though - do I need to add the individual files/folders to this command that I want tar'd or can I do something like "tar --exclude=MYEXCLUDEDDIRECTORY xvzf mydirectoryiwant.tar.gz ./mydirectoryiwant/

  Zsolt Botykai : You can do --exclude=MYDIRECTORY.

• actually just figured it out with your help - many thanks!

  Zsolt Botykai : Then it's time to mark my answer as correct, and close the question.