Copy a folder to another using tar. This way you can easily (one-way) synchronize whole folders and exclude files e.g. .metadata

tarcp.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Author: Mike Herwig
# Description:
# Copy a folder to another using tar.
# This way you can easily (one-way) synchronize whole folders and exclude files e.g. .metadata
#
# Usage:
# tarcp ~/directory1" "~/directory2

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
	echo "Usage:"
	echo "$0 source target"
	exit 1
fi

SOURCE=$1
TARGET=$2

tar -cf - -C "$SOURCE" --exclude ".metadata" . | (cd "$TARGET"; tar -xf - )