exclude option for tar

Hello,

My first hunch is to try using double quotes in your exclude statement:
--exclude "*.doc"

--
Cole

You're getting close. Try

tar cvf /Vol/U1/bills.filtered.tarfile.tar --exclude='*.doc' ./*

The syntax requires "=" and you need the quotes to prevent the pattern by being interpreted by the shell.

Hi,

I tried a simple test and all of the following forms of exclude worked for me:
--exclude '*.doc'
--exclude "*.doc"
--exclude='*.doc'
--exclude="*.doc"

(leaving the all quotes off only excluded doc files in the current working directory but not in sub folders)

Can you try hardwiring the path to the tar file as a test? It's the only other obvious difference from my example that I see.

--
Cole

first of all, don't you need to say "tar -cvf" (you have "tar cvf")?

secondly, when I did a similar test, I "cd'ed" to the directory that had the files that I wanted to tarball, then I did a tar -cvf test.tar --exclude "*.mov" * and it tarballed everything but .mov files

{quote:title=j.v. wrote:}first of all, don't you need to say "tar -cvf" (you have "tar cvf")?{quote}

Actually preceding the command word with a dash is optional. Seems odd but it does work.

--
Cole

Descending deep into the underbelly of Unix history, there have been an almost infinite number of implementations of tar, by almost as many organizations. One of the differences has been whether the command part of the invocation begins with or without a dash. Some organizations so wanted everyone to adopt their way that they either produced an error or berated you in some way if you dared try the other syntax.

Because it long ago reached the point where there clearly was never going to be one "right" way to do it, most competent tar programmers resorted to accepting either form.

The current version of GNU tar included with OSX behaves this way (thankfully).

Tar isn't the only Unix command with this sort of history, the above story applies to ar as well, although they haven't gotten quite as far along the evolutionary path as the tar authors yet (there are still ar versions that call you names if you deign to use, or not use, the dash, depending on their religion).

Great!

I'm glad you've got it working.

What version of tar are you using? My tests suggest the equals sign is optional and isn't mentioned in man page. I tested GNU tar versions 1.13.25 and 1.15.1. Just curious.

--
Cole

Another question: Did your final solution also include wild cards to your target tar file? When I try a similar path, tar fails with:
tar: /Vol /TB/file.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

ls /Vol /TB/ expands correctly. When I write out the whole path to my file, tar is happy. Just want to be sure this doesn't sneak up on you again later on.

--
Cole

The man page is woefully inadequate, as many of the GNU authors insist on info format instead.

The best place to find docs for GNU tools is on their site, complete tar docs (minus Apple extensions) can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/.

Another question: Did your final solution also include wild cards to your target tar file? When I try a similar path, tar fails with:
tar: /Vol /TB/file.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

The shell can't expand "/Vol /TB/file.tar" because it doesn't exist.

ls /Vol /TB/ expands correctly. When I write out the whole path to my file, tar is happy. Just want to be sure this doesn't sneak up on you again later on.

It can expand "/Vol /TB/" when you run ls on it because it's there.

You could run

tar cf $(echo /Vol/TB)/file.tar ...

if you had to, but just supplying the path might be easier.

{quote:title=corbaguy wrote:}The shell can't expand "/Vol /TB/file.tar" because it doesn't exist.{quote}

That's why I'm curious to find out how bixote was able to make it work. The original post lists 5 earlier attempts, 4 of which would've worked had the path to the tar file not contained wild cards. My theory is the exclude option may have been a red herring and not the source of the original problem.

--
Cole

My guess is that in the course of trying to get it to work the tar file was created, so the wildcarded path was valid and expandable.