exclude files in tar.gz

Question

I want to exclude two files from a tar file.. But it doesn't seem to work

cd /var/www/public/api_test
tar -zcvf api_v2.x.tar.gz api --exclude "./api/distributor_test.php" --exclude "./api/library/Distributor_API.php"

Answer 1

try (in one line, I fold for readability)

tar -zcvf api_v2.x.tar.gz 
   --exclude api/distributor_test.php 
   --exclude api/library/Distributor_API.php api

• argument (e.g. api) should be put last
• you may use --exclude distributor_test.php (if you only have one file named distributor_test.php )