topic Re: Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive in Operating System - Linux

Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive

Andrew Kaplan — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:39:34 GMT

If I want to extract a group of files from a tar archive that have a specific extension, which, if either will work, of the following methods should I use?

1. tar xvf /path/to/device/file *.extension

2.
a.tar -tvf /path/to/device/file > filename.txt
b.vi ./filename.txt and remove any file that does not have the extension
c.sh -c 'tar xvf /path/to/device/file $(cat ./filename.txt)'

Re: Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive

Alexander Chuzhoy — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:55:48 GMT

the first will sure work...

Re: Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:31:10 GMT

Hi Andrew,

first should work, but use "*.extension
", so that the shell doesnt expand the *.

greetings,

Michael

Re: Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive

Mark Grant — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 02:31:56 GMT

Just to clarify the previous post.

Because the shell will expand the "*" before tar actually runs, if you have a lot of files with the ".extension" extension in your current directory, tar will try and extract those files from the archive instead of files in the archive with that extension.

Re: Using tar to extract a group of specific files from archive

Elmar P. Kolkman — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 08:55:58 GMT

And that is why option 2 might be the better of the two. That way you are sure the shell won't interfere with what you are trying to do. Especially since you need to use single quotes, not double, if you want to keep the shell out of it ;-)