--- a/templates/lxc-download.in
+++ b/templates/lxc-download.in
@@ -380,26 +380,10 @@ if tar --version | grep -sq "bsdtar"; th
     IS_BSD_TAR="true"
 fi
 
-EXCLUDES=""
-excludelist=$(relevant_file excludes)
-if [ -f "${excludelist}" ]; then
-  while read -r line; do
-    if [ ${IS_BSD_TAR} = "true" ]; then
-      line="^${line}"
-    fi
-    EXCLUDES="${EXCLUDES} --exclude=${line}"
-  done < "${excludelist}"
-fi
-
-# Do not surround ${EXCLUDES} by quotes. This does not work. The solution could
-# use array but this is not POSIX compliant. The only POSIX compliant solution
-# is to use a function wrapper, but the latter can't be used here as the args
-# are dynamic. We thus need to ignore the warning brought by shellcheck.
-# shellcheck disable=SC2086
 if [ "${IS_BSD_TAR}" = "true" ]; then
-  tar ${EXCLUDES} --numeric-owner -xpJf "${LXC_CACHE_PATH}/rootfs.tar.xz" -C "${LXC_ROOTFS}"
+  tar --numeric-owner -xpJf "${LXC_CACHE_PATH}/rootfs.tar.xz" -C "${LXC_ROOTFS}"
 else
-  tar --anchored ${EXCLUDES} --numeric-owner --xattrs-include='*' -xpJf "${LXC_CACHE_PATH}/rootfs.tar.xz" -C "${LXC_ROOTFS}"
+  tar --numeric-owner --xattrs-include='*' -xpJf "${LXC_CACHE_PATH}/rootfs.tar.xz" -C "${LXC_ROOTFS}"
 fi
 
 mkdir -p "${LXC_ROOTFS}/dev/pts/"
