Hey Andy, is this what you are looking for?
Home Page: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html
Official Manual: http://www.gnu.org/manual/tar/index.html
When performing operations, tar will skip files that match pattern. @FIXME-xref{}.
--exclude-from=file
-X file
Similar to `--exclude', except tar will use the list of patterns in the file file. @FIXME-xref{}.
~Charlie
Home Page: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html
Official Manual: http://www.gnu.org/manual/tar/index.html
Quote:
--exclude=pattern When performing operations, tar will skip files that match pattern. @FIXME-xref{}.
--exclude-from=file
-X file
Similar to `--exclude', except tar will use the list of patterns in the file file. @FIXME-xref{}.
~Charlie