diff --git a/Lib/tarfile.py b/Lib/tarfile.py
index 5fc6183ffcf93c..ecc59afab6f63b 100755
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py
@@ -2208,7 +2208,8 @@ def add(self, name, arcname=None, recursive=True, *, filter=None):
                 self.addfile(tarinfo, f)
 
         elif tarinfo.isdir():
-            self.addfile(tarinfo)
+            if tarinfo.name != os.curdir:
+                self.addfile(tarinfo)
             if recursive:
                 for f in sorted(os.listdir(name)):
                     self.add(os.path.join(name, f), os.path.join(arcname, f),
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shutil.py b/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
index 60e88d57b2b23d..feb75bf79daa94 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
@@ -1637,7 +1637,7 @@ def test_make_tarball(self):
         self.assertTrue(tarfile.is_tarfile(tarball))
         with tarfile.open(tarball, 'r:gz') as tf:
             self.assertCountEqual(tf.getnames(),
-                                  ['.', './sub', './sub2',
+                                  ['./sub', './sub2',
                                    './file1', './file2', './sub/file3'])
 
         # trying an uncompressed one
@@ -1648,7 +1648,7 @@ def test_make_tarball(self):
         self.assertTrue(tarfile.is_tarfile(tarball))
         with tarfile.open(tarball, 'r') as tf:
             self.assertCountEqual(tf.getnames(),
-                                  ['.', './sub', './sub2',
+                                  ['./sub', './sub2',
                                   './file1', './file2', './sub/file3'])
 
     def _tarinfo(self, path):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
index c9c1097963a885..2551f8d232ddbb 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
@@ -1587,8 +1587,9 @@ def test_cwd(self):
             tar = tarfile.open(tmpname, "r")
             try:
                 for t in tar:
-                    if t.name != ".":
-                        self.assertTrue(t.name.startswith("./"), t.name)
+                    # gh-80145: "." is now excluded from tarfiles
+                    self.assertNotEqual(t.name, os.curdir)
+                    self.assertTrue(t.name.startswith("./"), t.name)
             finally:
                 tar.close()
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-02-02-42-43.bpo-35964.wG23fC.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-02-02-42-43.bpo-35964.wG23fC.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..0edbf6106c4f3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-06-02-02-42-43.bpo-35964.wG23fC.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+The tarfile module now excludes '.' directory entries when adding
+a directory to a tar archive.  Patch by Jeffrey Kintscher.