[SOLVED] how to create tar and compress at the same time

sam_nyc · 03-27-2012, 01:20 PM

Hi,

I always create the tar then I compress it, as a two steps. How can I do this in one step?

Code:

xyz - is a directory which is under /var/log

Step 1. tar -cvf /home/sam/march27_backup.tar /var/log/xyz
Step 2. gunzip march27_backup.tar

I did this and I get error message.

Code:

tar -cvf /home/sam/march27_backup.tar /var/log/xyz |gzip -c

Thank you.

druuna · 03-27-2012, 01:28 PM

Hi,

Tar's -z (--gzip) option can do that:

Code:

tar -zcvf /home/sam/march27_backup.tgz /var/log/xyz

BTW: The -j (--bzip2) can be used to use bzip2. There are more:

Code:

tar --help

too see all options.

Hope this helps.

TobiSGD · 03-27-2012, 01:32 PM

tar can handle the compression itself (using external programs). Have a look at the options -j, -z and -Z in the man page, they work for creating and extracting archives (although not necessary for extracting, tar recognizes compression automatically in that case).

sam_nyc · 03-27-2012, 01:42 PM

Thank you so much for the quick answer.

druuna · 03-27-2012, 01:51 PM

You're welcome

BTW: Can you put up the [SOLVED] tag.
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