Tar an entire folder EXCEPT a few files and folders?

Question

I have a folder structure like so:

file1
file2
file3
file4
folder1
folder2

Without writing each file, how can I tar zip all the files and folders, except file1 and folder1?

Answer 1

tar has an --exclude switch.

Answer 2

You can use --exclude=pattern option which prevents any file or member whose name matches the wildcard (pattern) from being operated on. For example, to create an archive with all the contents of the directory src' except for files whose names end in .exe', use the command `tar -cf src.tar --exclude='*.exe' src'.