Accourding documentation ( http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_section/recurse.html ):
$ tar -cf jams.tar --no-recursion grape --recursion grape/concord creates an archive with one entry for ‘grape’, and the recursive contents of ‘grape/concord’, but no entries under ‘grape’ other than ‘grape/concord’. My test with directory grape contains subdir "concord", "aa", "zz": # tar -cf jams.tar --no-recursion grape --recursion grape/concord && tar --list -f jams.tar grape/ grape/zz/ grape/zz/11/ grape/bb grape/concord/ grape/concord/aa grape/concord/ grape/concord/aa Looks like --no-recursion and --recursion just negate each other. More examples: two dirs "aa" and "bb" with file "11" and subdir "zz" in each. # tar -cf test.tar --no-recursion aa --recursion bb && tar --list -f test.tar aa/ aa/zz/ aa/11 bb/ bb/zz/ bb/11 Switching options order: # tar -cf test.tar --recursion aa --no-recursion bb && tar --list -f test.tar aa/ bb/ Is it bug or I shouldn't use --no-recursion and --recursion at same time?
