how to make tar exclude hidden directories

hidden, tar

Solution

You can use `--exclude=".*"`

$ tar -czvf test.tgz test/
test/
test/seen
test/.hidden
$ tar --exclude=".*" -czvf test.tgz test/
test/
test/seen

Be careful if you are taring the current directory, since it will also be excluded by this pattern matching.

$ cd test
$ tar --exclude=".*" -czvf test.tgz ./
$ tar -czvf test.tgz ./
./
./seen
./.hidden

Then you need to use `--exclude='.[^/]*'` as described elsewhere

$ tar --exclude='.[^/]*' -czvf test.tgz ./
./
./seen

Problem

When I want to exclude directories when taring, I typically use syntax like this: ``` tar -zcf /backup/backup.tar.gz --exclude="/home/someuser/.ssh" /home/someuser ``` How can I modify this to exclude all hidden directories, for example, in addition to .ssh/, I also want to exclude .vnc/, .wine/, etc.

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