How to Create tar Archive excluding some Files & Directories

tar czf backup.tar.gz --exclude "wp-content/cache" public_html

Above command will archive all files and directories under public_html directory except wp-content/cache directory and create a archive file named backup.tar.gz.

Examples

• Exclude a single directory inside other directory. Create archive of all files under public_html directory ignoring all files and folders including text backup in there named

  tar czf backup.tar.gz --exclude "wp-content/uploads" public_html
  

• You can define multiple exclude in single command. For example create and archive of all files under public_html directory ignoring .svn or .git files and directories.

  tar czf backup.tar.gz --exclude ".svn" --exclude ".git" public_html
  

• To exclude a specific file define full path of the file. For example exclude “logs/access.log” inside public_html directory.

  tar czf backup.tar.gz --exclude "logs/access.log" public_html
  

• Create archive of all files under public_html directory ignoring all files and directories starting with dot ( . ) (hidden files).

  tar czf backup.tar.gz --exclude "*.log" public_html