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Explain --exclude better. Don't strip leading `./'.

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This commit is contained in:
Paul Eggert
1999-08-14 07:05:51 +00:00
parent 67f20a741a
commit 3f7ee6f595
1 changed files with 25 additions and 17 deletions
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42
doc/tar.texi
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@@ -1635,13 +1635,13 @@ $ @kbd{tar --create --file=foo.tar .}
@end example
@noindent
@code{tar} will report @samp{tar: foo.tar is the archive; not dumped}.
@code{tar} will report @samp{tar: ./foo.tar is the archive; not dumped}.
This happens because @code{tar} creates the archive @file{foo.tar} in
the current directory before putting any files into it. Then, when
@code{tar} attempts to add all the files in the directory @file{.} to
the archive, it notices that the file @file{foo.tar} is the same as the
archive, and skips it. (It makes no sense to put an archive into
itself.) GNU @code{tar} will continue in this case, and create the
the archive, it notices that the file @file{./foo.tar} is the same as the
archive @file{foo.tar}, and skips it. (It makes no sense to put an archive
into itself.) GNU @code{tar} will continue in this case, and create the
archive normally, except for the exclusion of that one file.
(@emph{Please note:} Other versions of @code{tar} are not so clever;
they will enter an infinite loop when this happens, so you should not
@@ -5348,19 +5348,26 @@ Causes @code{tar} to ignore files that match the @var{pattern}.
@end table
@findex exclude
The @value{op-exclude} option will prevent any file or member which
matches the shell wildcards (@var{pattern}) from being operated on
(@var{pattern} can be a single file name or a more complex expression).
For example, if you want to create an archive with all the contents of
the working directory except for files whose names end in @file{.o}, you
can use the command @samp{tar -cf arch.tar --exclude='*.o' .}.
The @value{op-exclude} option prevents any file or member whose name
matches the shell wildcard (@var{pattern}) from being operated on.
For example, to create an archive with all the contents of the directory
@file{src} except for files whose names end in @file{.o}, use the
command @samp{tar -cf src.tar --exclude='*.o' src}.
A @var{pattern} containing @samp{/} excludes a file if an initial prefix
of the file name matches @var{pattern}; a @var{pattern} without @samp{/}
excludes a file if it matches any of its file name components. For
example, the pattern @samp{b*/RCS} excludes @file{blob/RCS} and
@file{blob/RCS/f} but not @file{a/blob/RCS} or @file{blob/sub/RCS},
whereas the pattern @samp{RCS} excludes all these file names.
A @var{pattern} containing @samp{/} excludes a name if an initial
subsequence of the name's components matches @var{pattern}; a
@var{pattern} without @samp{/} excludes a name if it matches any of its
name components. For example, the pattern @samp{*b/RCS} contains
@samp{/}, so it excludes @file{blob/RCS} and @file{.blob/RCS/f} but not
@file{blob/RCSit/RCS} or @file{/blob/RCS}, whereas the pattern
@samp{RCS} excludes all these names. Conversely, the pattern @samp{*.o}
lacks @samp{/}, so it excludes @file{.f.o}, @file{d/f.o}, and
@file{d.o/f}.
Other than optionally stripping leading @samp{/} from names
(@pxref{absolute}), patterns and candidate names are used as-is. For
example, trailing @samp{/} is not trimmed from a user-specified name
before deciding whether to exclude it.
You may give multiple @samp{--exclude} options.
@@ -5781,7 +5788,8 @@ Do not strip leading slashes from file names.
@end table
By default, GNU @code{tar} drops a leading @samp{/} on input or output.
This option turns off this behavior; it is equivalent to changing to the
This option turns off this behavior.
Tt is roughly equivalent to changing to the
root directory before running @code{tar} (except it also turns off the
usual warning message).