Extract files with TAR

[Coolmar]

Hi folks,

I have a tape and I need to extract everything on it. However it was created with the absolute path...so tar tvf gives:
/dir/file
/dir/file2 etc

I don't want the files to be restored to /dir which a tar xvf will do. I want to redirect the extract to /dir2. Is this possible, and if so, how?

Thanks!

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

pax can do this for you. Have a look at the pax man page as it gives examples of how to do this.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

You've now learned why backing up using absolute paths is less than optimal. You are stuck if using tar (although chroot with a lot of work could fix you). It's much easier to use pax (which will read cpio and tar files) and use -s to substitute the old/new filename patterns. Man pax for details.

[Peter Godron]

Sally,
pax or gnu tar should do the trick.
Avoid absolute path tar if possible.
Sorry.

[Peter Godron]

Sally,
harry also found another way (may be worth trying)
/usr/bin/cp /usr/sbin/static/tar /tmp
/usr/bin/dd if=file.tar | /usr/bin/chroot /tmp ./tar xf -

in
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x38d6cf38d6bdd5118ff10090279cd0f9,00.html

Regards

[harry d brown jr]

You can do so with "pax":

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=192383

live free or die
harry d brown jr

[Coolmar]

Thanks everyone! I didn't make these tapes, I just have to get the data off :0)

[Peter Godron]

Sally,
did you succeed in getting the data off the tape?
Thanks

[Coolmar]

I tried PAX and it worked great (thanks!) but then the tape got a "tape error 5". Actually many of their tapes, created in '95, have these tape error 5 errors. I have cleaned the drive a bunch of times but that doesn't even work. Don't know why they were not created with Fbackup or Data Protector...oh well, I guess they will be next time!

[Bill Hassell]

error 5 means I/O error. Almost always, this is a bad spot on the tape or the original tape was written on a dirty drive. Not much you can do about this as tar (and pax) have no resync or I/O recovery options.

[Tim D Fulford]

Hi

A long time ago I had problems with restoring data. We had similar errors (though I'm not 100% sure it was error 5). Anyway after trying it LOTS of times it did eventually extract. Whilst perseverance is not garenteed it can sometimes pay off!

If the data is really important there are companies that will (for a fee) extract data off tapes etc.

here is a company that might help

http://www.vogon-international.com/data%20recovery/tape_recovery-00.htm

Regards

Tim