How to extract specific directory from a TAR file?

Micro420 · 04-17-2007, 07:59 PM

My boss deleted her folder off the server. I make backups so I'm clear, however, I cannot find out how from the MAN pages and Google how to ONLY extract from the tar file her directory. All I can find are how to extract a specific file to an individual directory. Not what I want.

I'm thinking maybe:

Code:

cd /home/theboss
tar -tf /backups/filename.tar.gz | grep /home/theboss | xarg tar -zxf filename.tar.gz

Will this work?

Quakeboy02 · 04-17-2007, 08:03 PM

have you tried using file-roller?

Micro420 · 04-17-2007, 08:05 PM

There is no GUI on this server.

Is this correct?

Code:

cd /home/theboss
tar -zxf /backups/filename.tar.gz /home/theboss

I'm assuming that is:
tar -options <source> <directory-to-extract-from-tar-file>

Quakeboy02 · 04-17-2007, 09:18 PM

Code:

cd /home/theboss
tar -zxf /backups/filename.tar.gz /home/theboss

I think this will give you /home/theboss/home/theboss/..., won't it? I believe that you need to run the extraction from the root directory used for creation of the tar file. IOW, if you were actually IN /home/theboss when you ran tar, then, yes, go to /home/theboss. But, your tar won't actually have anything in it starting with /home/theboss, will it?

If this was a full backup, cd to "/". You can do a sort of trial run by running the following and seeing the full pathnames of what's in tar, if you don't already know.

Code:

oops, deleted see edit below

You can also go to some temporary directory and run your extract to see what gets created under that temp directory.

Edit:
Sorry, that should be:

Code:

tar -ztvf /backups/filename.tar.gz /home/theboss

Micro420 · 04-18-2007, 12:04 AM

Thanks for the suggestions, Quakeboy02. Unfortunately I have to get the data back up by the morning when my boss returns to the office so I can't test your method. I have the files remotely stored so I decided to just use scp. It should be done in a few hours (1.5GB). I could do a complete untar of the backup, but I don't want to risk it and mess up other files and people's directory by overwriting files. The server is on 24/7 and in use throughout the evening.