Question

exclude directory from tar

Asked by: hh125

Hi,

I am wondering how can I exclude a directory from a tar file?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Asked On
2003-09-29 at 21:44:04ID20752535
Tags

tar

,

exclude

Topics

Unix Operating Systems

,

HP-UX Unix

Participating Experts
6
Points
125
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: sunnycoderPosted on 2003-09-29 at 21:48:31ID: 9456715

Hi hh125,

use --exclude flag if you are using gnutar
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_20751425.html

Cheers!
Sunny

 

by: hh125Posted on 2003-09-29 at 23:40:30ID: 9457131

Hi,

How about using the regular tar command under unix?

Thanks,

 

by: yuzhPosted on 2003-09-29 at 23:59:34ID: 9457207

sunnycoder point you to the right directtion.

tar comand is OS depandent. (the native tar command come with OS, some of them does
not support exclude, or use different option flag to do the job)

You don't have the GNU tar install, you can always download it from the web, it support
compression as well. (normally install it in /usr/local/tar, assume that you has set PATH to
use it, otherwise you need to use /usr/local/bin/tar instead of tar).

Here's some examples for how to use it:

#----------------------------------------------------------------------------

GUN tar (tar with comprssion and excluding options):

   tar -czf tarball.tar.gz --exclude=pattern fileslist
   eg:
   tar -czf website.tar.gz  --exclude=*.zip public_html

   --exclude-from=file-of-patterns

   eg:
   tar -cvf mytest.tar --exclude-from=testfile bin

   tar -czf trial.tar ./* --no-anchored --exclude=./build/lib/*.a --exclude=*/OBJS/* --exclude=*/lib/solaris/*


   #testfile has all the excluding patterns

   To untar:
   tar -zxf website.tar.gz


   man tar

   to learn more

 

by: yuzhPosted on 2003-09-30 at 02:15:44ID: 9457765

For the native OS tar:

you can do:

tar cvf tarball.tar `ls | grep -v exclude-dir-name`

BTW, You should tell us wich version of OS you are using.

 

by: chris_calabresePosted on 2003-09-30 at 07:04:29ID: 9459355

Some tar's can do this, and some can't.

gnutar's been covered.

Solaris can do this by listing an <exclude-file> containing the names of the files to exclude after the name of the file to create when using -f

HP-UX and AIX can't do this.

Don't know about others.

But all is not lost as you can always use 'pax'. pax is a POSIX-mandated command designed to solve the tar/cpio quagmire and handles this situation quite easily.

find <whatever> | grep -v <whatever> | pax  -w -d -x ustar > archive
pax -r -x ustar < archive

See the man page for more info

 

by: JustUNIXPosted on 2003-09-30 at 07:56:33ID: 9459803

First, I'd like to suggest using standard tar -- there's no need to get incompatible with
the rest of us UNIXes. Exact information how to exclude files and/or directories from it
can be found at http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Solaris/Q_20740026.html

Cheers

 

by: gheistPosted on 2003-09-30 at 12:25:56ID: 9461671

Or you can use pax -w -x tar d a t a | dd of=archive.tar
it is present on every unix (maybe option for linux) and has nice uid/gid matching feature (if you need that)

 

by: SumeshDaftaryPosted on 2003-10-01 at 08:04:34ID: 9467294

It can be done by various method.

tar cvfX backup.tar .  exclude-file /xyz

where /xys is your excludefile and  backup.tar is actual name.

Good Luck

 

by: JustUNIXPosted on 2003-10-07 at 00:35:28ID: 9503835

Any more help required, hh125 ?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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