7za ax (add files excluding) syntax at macOS console.

Question

7za help lists the following switches for including/excluding files in the archive:

  -ai[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard}: Include archives
  -ax[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard}: eXclude archives

Suppose I want to pack My Directory to MyArchive.zip excluding subdirectory Irrelevant.

I tried the following

7za -ax"My Directory/Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

7za a -x"My Directory/Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

7za a -x@"My Directory/Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

7za a -x"@My Directory/Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

7za a -x"Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

Neither of those is recognised.

Answer 1

The correct syntax is:

7za a -x\!"My Directory/Irrelevant/*" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

or even this

7za a -x\!"My Directory/Irrelevant" -tzip MyArchive.zip "My Directory"

Note the '\' before exclamation mark, as otherwise bash will treat '!' as an event. Tried to put '!' under quotes - didn't work.