tar question

[David Tonhofer, m-plify S.A.]

> I'm trying to tar up a directory (/home/tempuser) that contains a bunch
> of subdirectories.  One of the subdirectories (/home/tempuser/work), I
> would like to omit from being tar'd.  I'm using the command:
>
> tar cvf backup.tar --exclude="/home/tempuser/work"

That *should* work. Can you try w/o the equals sign?

For example, an outrageously parametrized tar:

tar --create --preserve --blocking-factor 128 --totals
--block-number --ignore-failed-read --file /dev/nst0
--user-compress-program encyrpt.sh --label ARCHIVE_3
/timestamp /home /stop
--exclude /home/smbalal
--exclude /home/smbbeto
--exclude /home/smbdato