tar exclude directory

• The --exclude flag should be placed before the source directory.

• Some Linux distributions allow --exclude /path/to/excluded/, while others require = such as --exclude="/path/to/excluded".

• All distributions I have used allow the = version.

• Other flags like -czf should be added directly after the tar command, such as tar -czf

• The exclusion directory doesn’t have the trailing backslash like --exclude="./wpcontent/uploads".

Here’s the Example for excluding the uploads folder in a WordPress installation.

	tar -czf backup.tgz --exclude="/var/www/wordpress/wp-content/uploads" /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/
	

			
	
			

		
	

• You can use the above code to exclude files or directories from your archive.
• You can use globbing patterns in the exclude flag. For example, --exclude=*.mp4.