Excluding specific directory in tar using --exclude

Question

Imagine the following dir structure:

tartest> find .
.
./node_modules
./foo
./foo/node_modules
./foo/foo.js

Is there a way to exclude the top-level node_modules but not the one under foo using only tar (not a find/xargs solution).

I would have thought specifying the excluded directory using ./node_modules would work but

tartest> tar cvfz ../foo.tar.gz  --exclude='./node_modules' .
a .
a ./foo
a ./foo/foo.js

May be different based on the version of `tar` you're using...could you post `tar --version`? — Dave M., Jan 12 '22 at 22:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 12 '22 at 22:30

1

tar cvfz ../foo.tar.gz  --exclude='^./node_modules' .

since --exclude takes a pattern. It remains to be seen if the '^' as beginning-of-line match is valid for your version of tar.

answered Jan 12 '22 at 22:30

9769953

This works on my MacOS 12.1-Monterey, bsdtar 3.5.1. – Dave M. Jan 12 '22 at 23:38

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '22 at 23:00

-2

I suggest to replace cvfz with cvzf.

answered Jan 12 '22 at 23:00

Cyrus

2 Answers2