Shell command to tar directory excluding certain files/folders

Question

Is there a simple shell command/script that supports excluding certain files/folders from being archived?

I have a directory that need to be archived with a sub dire

Answer 1

If you are trying to exclude Version Control System (VCS) files, tar already supports two interesting options about it! :)

1. Option : --exclude-vcs

This option excludes files and directories used by following version control systems: CVS, RCS, SCCS, SVN, Arch, Bazaar, Mercurial, and Darcs.

As of version 1.32, the following files are excluded:

• CVS/, and everything under it
• RCS/, and everything under it
• SCCS/, and everything under it
• .git/, and everything under it
• .gitignore
• .gitmodules
• .gitattributes
• .cvsignore
• .svn/, and everything under it
• .arch-ids/, and everything under it
• {arch}/, and everything under it
• =RELEASE-ID
• =meta-update
• =update
• .bzr
• .bzrignore
• .bzrtags
• .hg
• .hgignore
• .hgrags

• _darcs

  2. Option : --exclude-vcs-ignores

When archiving directories that are under some version control system (VCS), it is often convenient to read exclusion patterns from this VCS' ignore files (e.g. .cvsignore, .gitignore, etc.) This option provide such possibility.

Before archiving a directory, see if it contains any of the following files: cvsignore, .gitignore, .bzrignore, or .hgignore. If so, read ignore patterns from these files.

The patterns are treated much as the corresponding VCS would treat them, i.e.:

.cvsignore

Contains shell-style globbing patterns that apply only to the directory where this file resides. No comments are allowed in the file. Empty lines are ignored.

.gitignore

Contains shell-style globbing patterns. Applies to the directory where .gitfile is located and all its subdirectories.

Any line beginning with a # is a comment. Backslash escapes the comment character.

.bzrignore

Contains shell globbing-patterns and regular expressions (if prefixed with RE:(16). Patterns affect the directory and all its subdirectories.

Any line beginning with a # is a comment.

.hgignore

Contains posix regular expressions(17). The line syntax: glob switches to shell globbing patterns. The line syntax: regexp switches back. Comments begin with a #. Patterns affect the directory and all its subdirectories.

3. Example

tar -czv --exclude-vcs --exclude-vcs-ignores -f path/to/my-tar-file.tar.gz path/to/my/project/