using tar to extract properly

xushi · 03-05-2005, 06:52 AM

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out how to untar to a specific destination, similar to how 'installpkg' copies everything to its required destination

Say i tar cvvf /var/www/htdocs htdocs.tar
and i'm in my home folder now...
If i untar the file
tar xvvf htdocs.tar
it will be extracted to my current directory
/home/xushi/var/www/htdocs
instead of being moved to its propper destination
/var/www/htdocs

How can i solve this problem?

acid_kewpie · 03-05-2005, 06:57 AM

if you're including the full file path inside the tar, you can extract the tar straight to the root directory, / which will implicitly put things in the right place.

keefaz · 03-05-2005, 06:58 AM

Did you try the -P option (--absolute-paths) when extracting, like

tar xvfP htdocs.tar

xowl · 03-05-2005, 06:59 AM

First of all, I think U mean

tar cf htdocs.tar /var/www/htdocs

and second , what U R locking for is

tar xzf htdocs.tar -C /

Hope this work

xushi · 03-05-2005, 07:00 AM

If i also want to bzip it, would i do it this way?

tar cfj htdocs.tar.bz2 /var/www/htdocs

tar xzfjP htdocs.tar.bz2 -C /

EDIT:

No keefaz, i didn't try the -P option. i will compare both now.

EDIT: added P

keefaz · 03-05-2005, 07:03 AM

Try to put the option in this order (the f at least)

tar cjvf htdocs.tar.bz2 /var/www/htdocs

xushi · 03-05-2005, 07:07 AM

I keep getting this warning, i don't know if it affects anything i do or not

tar cjvf test.tar.bz2 /download/my.pls

tar: Removing leading '/' from member names

EDIT: This removal is the problem i'm facing.. I was wondering if there's anyway to disable that. So far, it works with the -C / option though.

keefaz · 03-05-2005, 07:51 AM

I see, I would think the -P option can keep the leading '/' when taring
(I believed that this option was to be set during extracting but it seems rather
be used during taring)

xushi · 03-05-2005, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by keefaz
I see, I would think the -P option can keep the leading '/' when taring
(I believed that this option was to be set during extracting but it seems rather
be used during taring)

From the testing i've just done.. Apparently you need to add the -P option on both tarring and untarring

mdarby · 03-05-2005, 09:10 AM

Tar:
tar czpf <tarball name> <Files to be tarred>

Untar:
tar zxf <tarball name> -C <Location>

To do Bzip, replace 'z' with 'j'