How to stop tar from archiving the root path to files?
Solution 1:
Try option -C:
tar cvzf backup.tar.gz -C /path/to/my/files/ .
Solution 2:
I'm assuming this is in a script so try something like...
pushd /path/to/my/files
tar cfvz backup.tar.gz *
popd
Tar will only include the path specified on the command-line.