Create a tar ball in a different directory than what I want to tar

[KPS]

I'm trying to do a tarball of a directory and all of it's sub-directories underneath it. I'm trying to create this in a different directory, than what I'm tarring up, due to space constraints. What I'm looking for is how do i use the following command in the context of putting the actual tar file in a different directory?

1.) cd /usr/local/job (I want to tar up the contents of this directory)

2.) tar cvf ??????? (What else do I need here)

[S.K. Chan · Accepted solution]

# cd /usr/local/job
# tar cvf /tmp/myfile.tar .
That should tar up everything under /usr/local/job and create the tar file "myfile.tar" in /tmp.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Ken,

Use it as follows:

tar cvf /path/to/file.tar /usr/local/job

With this command you can be anywhere, but be advised it will ONLY extract to /usr/local/job

Else you can do this relative as follows:

cd /usr/local
tar cvf /path/to/file.tar ./job

This will create a tarball that looks like
./job/xxxxxx that can be extracted into anywhere

OR even
cd /usr/local/job
tar cvf /path/to/file.tar .

HTH,
Jeff

[John Bolene]

depends on if you want absolute or relative
relative
cd /usr/local
tar -cf /tmp/file.tar job

absolute
tar -cf /tmp/file.tar /usr/local/job

[Sean OB_1]

1. cd /usr/local/job
2. tar -cvf /tmp/newtarfile.tar *

the -f tells it what file to write to.

[Darrell Allen]

Hi Ken,

cd /usr/local/job
tar cvf /different_dir/tarfile_name .

This will create your tarball in /different_dir/tarfile_name. the " ." at the end of the tar command says to select the current directory. All files in /usr/local/job and it's sub-directories will be included.

This will also create the tarball with relative pathnames. That's always a good idea because you can easily extract it to a new location.

Darrell

[MANOJ SRIVASTAVA]

just do a tar cvf /dev/rmt/0m * this willt ar evderythin under /usr/local/job witht he absolute path not including /usr/local/job but everything under it.



Manoj Srivastava

[Jordan Bean]

Of if you want to be in the directory where the tarball is to be created, you could do it this way:

cd /tmp; tar cf job.tar -C /usr/local/job .

or

cd /tmp; tar cf job.tar -C /usr/local job

or add a little compression:

cd /tmp; tar cf - -C /usr/local job | gzip -c > job.tgz

You get the idea.

[Moser Hermann]

I do you this syntax:

cd /dir_old
tar -cf - . | (cd /dir_new; tar -xf -)