Probably a simple solution 2 a tar question

Cruger · 03-22-2004, 08:38 AM

Hi.. I'm writing a script to decompress a tar file... my code so far looks like this:

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`tar xf filename.tar`
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I don't get any errors.. but it does not decompress it either... why? what have I missed?

mfeat · 03-22-2004, 09:42 AM

if the tarfile is compressed add "z" option:

tar xfz filename.tar

it could also be compressed with bzip2 in which case use "j"

to see what type of compression was used do:
file filename.tar

Cruger · 03-22-2004, 09:54 AM

It tells me : backup.tar: empty

why?

mfeat · 03-22-2004, 02:09 PM

sounds like you've not put any files in the tar, what command are you using to create the tar file?

Cruger · 03-23-2004, 07:42 AM

This is the command I use to create the tar file... (I need to be able to add more files to this archive later, that's why I've used >>)
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`tar cf $fil.tar >> backup.tar`
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mfeat · 03-23-2004, 09:18 AM

you're missing the name of the file(s) or directory to add to the tar. also, use "r" instead of "c" to append

to add all files in the current directory tree do:

tar rf file.tar .

to add selected files in a dir do (c files in this example):
tar rf file.tar *.c

to view the list of files in the tar do:
tar tvf file.tar

to add another directory tree to the tar, do:
tar rf file.tar newdir

Cruger · 03-23-2004, 09:32 AM

Oki, thanx that did the trick