Tar: create archive exclude directories except one

Question

I have some directories with some files ``` dir_archive/somedir1 dir_archive/somedir2 dir_archive/somedir3 dir_archive/mydir dir_archive/mydir/excludedir1 dir_archive/mydir/excludedir2 dir_archive/mydir/excludedir3 dir_archive/mydir/many_other_directories... dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir ``` I want create tar(gz) archive dir_archive.tar.gz with all files and directories exclude ``` dir_archive/mydir/excludedir1 dir_archive/mydir/excludedir2 dir_archive/mydir/excludedir3 dir_archive/mydir/many_other_directories... ``` but include ``` dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir ``` I dont want use `--exclude` for each directory ``` tar cvfz dir_archive.tar.gz --exclude=dir_archive/mydir/excludedir1 --exclude=dir_archive/mydir/excludedir2 --exclude=dir_archive/mydir/excludedir3 ``` I try use `--add-file`, but it doesn't work: ``` tar cvfz dir_archive.tar.gz --exclude=dir_archive/mydir --add-file=dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir dir_archive ``` Exists some simple way? Thanks

Accepted Answer

One way would be first excluding the `mydir` and then appending the `my_archive_dir`

```
tar cvf dir_archive.tar --exclude=dir_archive/mydir dir_archive
tar rvf dir_archive.tar dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir
gzip dir_archive.tar
```

Unfortunately appending doesn't work with zipped archives.

The `--exclude` option takes a pattern as argument, so if the names of the dirs to be excluded are similar, you can avoid them and still include the archive dir

```
tar cvfz dir_archive.tar.gz --exclude=dir_archive/mydir/exclude* dir_archive
```

It is also possible to create a file with names of all the files that you want included and give that list to tar with option `-T` or `--files-from` (or in similar fashion list the files to be excluded and give the list with option `-X`).

```
filelist.txt:
dir_archive
dir_archive/temp1
dir_archive/mydir
dir_archive/mydir/temp2
dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir
dir_archive/mydir/my_archive_dir/temp7
```

```
tar cvfz dir_archive.tar.gz --no-recursion --files-from filelist.txt
```

Tar: create archive exclude directories except one

Solution

Problem