tar /gzip and exclusion of directories

wonder if this is possible and what the exact syntax is..

i.e. if i had a directory

Code: 
/home
 /public_html
   /directory1
   /directory2
   /directory3
now if i wanted to tar up all of public_html

i'd type

cd /home
tar cvf public.tar public_html

but what if i want to tar up all except directory1 and directory3 (exclude directory1 and directory3) ?

what should i type ?

thanks

 

 

 

 

Top