GNU Tar Include and Exclude Behavior

This table represents the results of installcheck/gnutar.pl across multiple GNU Tar versions. Note that this page only deals with include and exclude behavior; see the GNU Tar FAQ entry for other undesirable behaviors.

pat	file	include									exclude
		no args			-wc			-no-wc			no args			-wc			-no-wc
		<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22	<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22	<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22	<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22	<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22	<1.16	1.16-22	>1.22
./A*A	A*A
./A*A	AxA
./A\*A	A*A
./A\*A	AxA
./B?B	B?B
./B?B	BxB
./B\?B	B?B
./B\?B	BxB
./C[C	C[C
./C\[C	C[C
./D\]D	D]D
./D]D	D]D
./E\E	E\E
./E\\E	E\E
./F'F	F'F
./F\'F	F'F
./G"G	G"G
./G\"G	G"G
./H H	H H
./H\ H	H H

There are some interesting patterns to note here:

• For includes, behavior with --no-wildcards is identical to the default behavior.
• For excludes, behavior with --wildcards is identical to the default behavior.
• Single quotes ('), double quotes ("), and spaces always match themselves exactly, regardless of wildcards.