tar question

[Ryan Golhar]

I'm trying to tar up a directory (/home/tempuser) that contains a bunch
of subdirectories.  One of the subdirectories (/home/tempuser/work), I
would like to omit from being tar'd.  I'm using the command:

tar cvf backup.tar --exclude="/home/tempuser/work" 

However  that directory is still being tar'd up.  I suspect I'm not
using the parameter correctly.  If there a way I can exclude that
directory plus any subdirectories or files underneathe it?

Ryan