Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Can you post the actual command that you've been running? With a tar.gz file, you'd normally run something like tar -zxpf filename.tar.gz and with a tar.bz2 you'd normally run something like tar -jxpf filename.tar.bz2
what worked for me before was tar xzvf filename.tar.gz Im downloading themes from freshmeat, and thats the command it says to use on thier site so thats what i used. Ive never actually gotten a bz2 file to open but what i tried whats tar xvjf filename.tar.bz2.
what does the "-" in front of the "z" or "j" do? I tried to read through the tar man pages but it all looking like a strange language from a far off place.
-j, --bzip2 filter the archive through bzip2
--old-archive, --portability
same as --format=v7
--pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value], ...]
control pax keywords
--posix same as --format=posix
--use-compress-program=PROG
filter through PROG (must accept -d)
-V, --label=TEXT create archive with volume name NAME. At
list/extract time, use TEXT as a globbing pattern
-z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip filter the archive through gzip
-Z, --compress, --uncompress filter the archive through compress
the - lets it know that the next letter is a flag(how to act)
-j bzip2 ect ect
i dont know if it is any different but if i get stuck i try
tar --help
this will give me the options
I know they are both installed I tried to install them with apt-get and i already had them, but on the path? what does that mean? Ive heard that before but have no idea what it means
On your path just means that if you type bzip2 or gzip you don't get a command not found error. In other words, the commands are in one of the directories returned by echo $PATH. Does the tar command work with other tar.gz files? It may be a problem with sth-default-1.2.tar.gz.
Lastly, to copy/paste from a terminal I click and drag with the mouse to copy the text. Depending on your setup, click the right mouse button or click the mouse wheel to paste the text.
ryan@RyansBox:~$ gzip
gzip: compressed data not written to a terminal. Use -f to force compression.
For help, type: gzip -h
ryan@RyansBox:~$ bzip2
bzip2: I won't write compressed data to a terminal.
bzip2: For help, type: `bzip2 --help'.
ryan@RyansBox:~$
sweet, i got them in the path, and i can copy and paste, if only i could unpack a tarball
ryan@RyansBox:~$ tar xzvf crystal-moz15-default-1.0.tar.gz
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: Read 1846 bytes from crystal-moz15-default-1.0.tar.gz
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
ryan@RyansBox:~$
for fun i downloaded another tarball, same sort of outcome.
If it's not working for these files (but worked on others previously) then something strange may be happening when they're downloaded.
Are you downloading with FTP in binary mode or is it just coming down from a web page? If it's from a web page, can you post the URL and I'll try it from here?
ryan@RyansBox:~$ gunzip sth-default-1.2.tar.gz
gunzip: sth-default-1.2.tar.gz: not in gzip format
ryan@RyansBox:~$ gunzip crystal-moz15-default-1.0.tar.gz
when i tried gunzip on the mozilla theme, it appeared to not do anything but when i typed "ls" it took the gz off the end of the file so its now filename.tar instead of filename.tar.gz
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.