[SOLVED] Tar using include-file and exclude file one liner?

metallica1973 · 10-18-2011, 12:11 PM

Can someone show me an example of using tar to backup a directories and files using an include-file and exclude-file together in a one liner? So basically backup these files and exclude So for example:

Code:

cat include.mydirs

/home/testuser/Documents/paths.exchange
/home/testuser/Documents/report.pdf
/home/testuser/Documents
/home/testuser/lf5/mru_file_manager
/home/testuser/lf5
/home/testuser/brookshire
/home/testuser/

Code:

cat exclude.mydirs
/home/testuser/.*
/home/testuser/Downloads*
/home/testuser/Pictures*

Code:

tar czXf /home/testuser/exclude.mydirs backup.dirs.tgz `/bin/cat /home/testuser/include.mydirs`

or

Code:

tar -zcvf backup.dirs.tar.gz -X exclude.mydirs `/bin/cat /home/testuser/include.mydirs`

??

colucix · 10-18-2011, 01:07 PM

Here we go:

Code:

tar zcf backup.dirs.tgz --files-from=include.mydirs --exclude-from=exclude.mydirs --no-recursion

Don't forget the --no-recursion option at the end.

metallica1973 · 10-18-2011, 03:18 PM

too easy. Many thanks

metallica1973 · 10-18-2011, 03:32 PM

Many thanks

one more question. when I run the tar command I get this in the beginning:

Code:

tar: Removing leading `/' from member names

and at the end when it finishes but it works fine:

Code:

tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

.Just curious when I see erorrs. It appears to strip the "/" from the file when reading include.mydirs

any ideas ??

chrism01 · 10-18-2011, 08:04 PM

Try adding the -v (verbose ) flag to help see error msgs.
The default for tar is to remove leading '/', so that tarball contents are relocatable on restore.
You can prevent that

Quote:

-P, --absolute-names
don't strip leading '/'s from file names

http://linux.die.net/man/1/tar

metallica1973 · 10-20-2011, 02:25 PM

Awesome, Many thanks