LinuxQuestions.org - Exclude a folder on tar

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Exclude a folder on tar

Hi
I want to backup the contents of the folder:

Code:

/home/username/public_html/

Inside public_html is a folder named uploads that i want to exclude from tar (completely exclude this folder and all files in it and all subfolders in it)
So i cd here:

Code:

cd /home/username

Then i found from Google many recommendations like:

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz --exclude=/home/username/public_html/uploads public_html

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=/home/username/public_html/uploads

Code:

tar --exclude=/home/username/public_html/uploads -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=./home/username/public_html/uploads

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude="/home/username/public_html/uploads"

No way to get this folder excluded as i can see from ssh when i run the commands.... :(
Any ideas?

Tested on Centos and Ubuntu 64bit servers :(

You do not have ssh listed anywhere in the commands above. What part is this playing in the issuing of the command?

As far as the tar command goes, you need to remember the man page advises it is a pattern and once in your home directory, there will not be a full path to your directory available.
Try:

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz --exclude=uploads public_html

The key idea from your OP is...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASTRAPI (Post 5270694)

Inside public_html is a folder named uploads that i want to exclude from tar (completely exclude this folder and all files in it and all subfolders in it)

And the key idea from man tar is...

Quote:

--exclude FILE
exclude file FILE

Hint: Emphasis on FILE is in man tar (i.e. NOT directories).

It also happens that the path to the files to exclude are matched as character strings, not as absolute filesystem paths, so they must be expressed in the same context as the included files. Because you are including public_html as a relative path, the exclude path must also be relative.

So this will not work...

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=/home/username/public_html/uploads

Nor this...

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=./home/username/public_html/uploads

(Which shows that you probably need to study up on GNU/Linux, Unix file path expresions in general).

Nor this...

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=public_html/uploads



Nor this...



tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=public_html/uploads/

But something like this should because paths are relative and it lists all FILEs (wildcard expansion is done by the shell)

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=public_html/uploads/*

This one works for me:

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html --exclude=public_html/uploads/*

Thanks !

How can i do the opposite now?

Exclude all fies and folders and tar only the /public_html/uploads files and subfolders there?

Thanks

Just explicitly tell it what to tar

Code:

tar -cpvzf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html/uploads

If you want to add those files to an existing archive,. you can just add '-r' or '--append' (same thing) to your options list:

Code:

tar -cpvzrf /home/username/sitefiles.tgz public_html/uploads