A Day with Winrar
All I wanted to do was exclude folders and their contents using wildcards, and even after reading the docs, it turned into a guessing game...
So my test bed looks like:
C:\!tmp1\f1
C:\!tmp1\f1\f1.txt
C:\!tmp1\f1\a
C:\!tmp1\f1\a\a.txt
C:\!tmp1\f2
C:\!tmp1\f2\f2.txt
C:\!tmp1\f2\a
C:\!tmp1\f2\a\a.txt
And I am executing:
C:\>"c:\program files\winrar\winrar.exe" a -r !tmp1.rar !tmp1
which gives me a rar with !tmp1 as the root (sole top level folder).
The exclude switch is -x<filepathpattern> and may be included multiple times.
So, given that we want to exclude f2, and all its subcontents...
-x*\f2\*
removes the contents, but leaves f2
-xf2
does nothing - includes all
-x\f2
does nothing - includes all
-x*\f2
does nothing - includes all (now I'm mad), so surely it must be..
-x\f2\
nope, does nothing - includes all. So it has GOT to be...
-x*\f2\
hell no, does nothing - includes all. and I already know that
-x*\f2\*
removes the contents, but leaves f2. Onward we go...
-x*f2\
does nothing - includes all. Grrrr. Aha! how about...
-x!tmp1\f2\
nope, does nothing - includes all. WTF. Alright, So it has GOT to be...
-x!tmp1\f2
Holy moly, it worked! Hmmm, then how come....
-x*\f2
does not work? This was the little demon that sent me down this crazed path to begin with and should have worked!
Given all that, do I dare try to go after */a/* directories, removing contents and the dirs?
-x*\a
does not work, of course, does nothing.
-x*\*\a
does not work, of course, does nothing.
-x!tmp1\*\a
nope. But...
-x*\a\*
removes contents of both dirs, but leaves the folders. So, in desperation I can use the -ed switch which will not store empty folders, but this is a broad hack, I want to eliminate the folders specified not all empty folders.
With my animosity growing toward winrar, I am passing the baton of information forward with an eye to that glorious day when we will know how to specifically exclude a folder and its contents using wildcards and not using the -ed switch.
Answer
(Quite old question but still may be relevant)
Maybe what you simply needed was this :
-x*\f2 -x*\f2\*
two exclude switches, should remove directory f2 and all its contents.