Tar a module without git version control system files

If you develop a custom Drupal module and use git to keep track off versions you probably don’t want to include the git files when ‘tarring’ the module.

Normally I would use:

tar czfv modulename.tar.gz modulename/

This creates a gzipped tar file of the module folder and it’s content. Which is great!

But if we use git to keep track of different versions of the module, it will create a bunch of hidden files within the module’s folder.

Git keeps all its files in a hidden folder named .git. The above tar command will also tar the hidden git folder.

To prevent the .git folder and other hidden files from being tarred use the following command instead:

tar czfv modulename.tar.gz modulename/*