tar problem - Removing leading / from hard link targets

rajeshkahara · 01-02-2006, 11:14 PM

Hi all,

I have a nightly cron job that uses tar to back up directory.
I am using the command

tar –czf directory.tgz /some/directory

Above command gives following error.

tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
tar: Removing leading `/' from hard link targets

I am not bothered about ‘Removing leading `/' from member names’ but about ‘Removing leading `/' from hard link targets’. I'm concerned that restoring my files will not be successful.
Can anyone help me sorting the issue ? Is it a bug in tar ?

Thanks in Advance.
Rajesh.

Guttorm · 01-03-2006, 05:40 AM

Hi

It's nothing serious - tar gives that warning when you tar directories starting with "/".

Think of the senario:
cd ~
tar -czf etc.tgz /etc

Then if you
tar -xzf etc.tgz
should the files be unpacked in /etc? I think not. Thats why tar removes the leading / for all names in the tar file.

To prevent the warning
cd /
tar -czf directory.tgz some/directory

Or you can just
tar –czf directory.tgz /some/directory |grep -v "Removing leading"

jtshaw · 01-05-2006, 01:33 PM

Please do not post the same thread in more than one forum. Picking the most relevant forum and posting it once there makes it easier for other members to help you and keeps the discussion all in one place.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php

Continue here.