Help with Tar command

I am using tar within a monthly cron job, and found that my command line has an error. I 'think' I understand what it is, but I can't find any examples or explanation by reading the tar manual on the GNU website, or generally using google of how to work round it.

I presume my cron job is being run with the current directory as filesystem root, because this command line

tar -czf /bak/archive/snap/mb.com/melinda.tar.gz --exclude-tag=NOBAK.TAG -C /bak/mb.com *

complains that it can't find many of the root level directories.

I suspect the * here is being expanded by the shell before it calls tar, which is what causes the problem. How can I tell tar to copy all the files in the /bak/mb.com directory into the archive (exluding the directories that have a file called NOBAK.TAG in them) in such a way that the inside of the tar archive does NOT have the directory mb.com as its top level, but all the files and directories under mb.com. (I am relaxed about including the files/directories starting with a dot, although on balance I would prefer that they be included).
--
Alan Chandler
http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk


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