One way to test exclude patterns is with tar -c --exclude=pattern includedirectorys | tar -t -
Unfortunately, I didn't run such a test before responding to the original poster, and now that I have I would like to retract my previous posts on the subject. Sorry! The examples below show that the stripping of the leading / by tar is not the issue as I thought it was. $ rm -fr /tmp/{a,b} $ mkdir -p /tmp/a/b /tmp/b/tmp/a/c $ tar -c --exclude=nothing /tmp/{a,b} | tar -t -f - tar: Removing leading `/' from member names tmp/a/ tmp/a/b/ tmp/b/ tmp/b/tmp/ tmp/b/tmp/a/ tmp/b/tmp/a/c/ #everything is listed, as expected $ tar -c --exclude=/tmp/a /tmp/{a,b} | tar -t -f - tar: Removing leading `/' from member names tmp/b/ tmp/b/tmp/ tmp/b/tmp/a/ tmp/b/tmp/a/c/ # the desired result $ tar -c --exclude=tmp/a /tmp/{a,b} | tar -t -f - tar: Removing leading `/' from member names tmp/b/ tmp/b/tmp/ # not the desired result Winston -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]