ubuntu: How to zip a directory in ubuntu by excluding some subdirectories from command line

Question

Added from SO as off topic, however there is no answer in here

I want to zip a directory by excluding some unwanted subdirectories. I have tried :

zip -r test.zip * -x 'test1/' 'test2/'

and

zip -r test.zip * -x 'test1/' -x 'test2/'

But nothing happens.

Answer 1

Credits to Akhil (q.) and Naota (ans.)

Try

zip -r test.zip * -x test1/\* test2/\*

The \* is an escaped wildcard character, which avoids path expansion by the shell prior to being passed to zip.

Reference (check --include explanation)