Running the tar command with the --exclude functionality does not work for directories

Question

I use

tar hczf t.tar.gz * --exclude="./test1"

where test1 is the name of a directory that I want to prevent from being tarred.

Unfortunately, tar still includes the directory test1. How can I have tar exclude directories?

Answer 1

So it turns out that to prevent the tarring of a directory you need to change where you're adding the --exclude

tar --exclude="./test1" -hczf t.tar.gz *

works

Answer 2

The arguments come before the files.

tar hczf t.tar.gz --exclude="test1" *

will work.

Answer 3

try...

tar hczf t.tar.gz * --exclude="test1"