Hi,

I'm trying to run a command from an ubuntu howto page, but there's something wrong with it that i dont understand?

Can you point it out please?

Thanks

root@nnjond-desktop:/# tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz -–exclude=/backup.tar.gz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/sys --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/dev /
tar: invalid option --
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
root@nnjond-desktop:/#

Hi.

Looking at it with plain cat:
but with option -A:
so you have a non-standard dash. Replace that and you should be able to get past this problem ... cheers, makyo

I don't understand.

It appears you have some non-printing characters in your script, such as the control-S.

You thought you only typed "-–exclude=/backup.tar.gz" What you actually typed, as shown by the "cat -A (show all)" command is "-^Sexclude=/backup.tar.gz$" where that "^S" is the printed representation of a control-S. Once the line parser hit that, all it sees is the double-dash, which is an invalid option, and not the double-dash-exclude.

That's an easy enough mistake to make; I know I accidentally put non-printing characters in with annoying regularity.