Tar using Matching pattern and removing leading paths
 

I'm trying to backup the log files contained in /var/log while removing leading paths at creation.

without removing the leading paths I can do this simply with:

tar -cvf ~/backup.tar /var/log/*.log

unfortunately I can't seem to remove the leading paths. I have looked online and found using -C will change the working directory for the command but when I do so, it doesn't recognize the pattern glob and says it cannot find the file or directory *.log

tar -cvf ~/backup.tar /var/log/ *.log

I'm sure my syntax must be off and I've tried some silly variations.

I think if you go to the /var/log directory and perform that command this way, it may do what you want:

you can use --transform option to modify filenames, probably something like this:
not tested!

+1 for post#2.
Tip: cd in a subshell to preserve the current directory in the main shell.

You can use on extractto trim off the leading paths.