Unpacking a tar file into a different directory

[Pete Mattison]

I have a tar file "mysql-3.23.32-hp-hpux10.20-hppa1.1.tar" which when unpacked naturally ends up with the "mysql-3.23.32-hp-hpux10.20-hppa1.1" directory.

Is it possible to unpack the tar file into the directory /usr/local/mysql? or do I have to unpack the file then rename the directory?

I'm curious to see if this is possible - tried tar xvf "file.name" -C /usr/local/mysql but the computer didn't do anything, didn't complain either.

Pete

[Thierry Poels_1 · Accepted solution]

hi,
if fixed directory path has been used to create the tar file, then I'm afraid there's is no way in restoring them elsewere. An alternative would be to create a link to the directory where you want the files to be dropped.

BTW the name of the tar file does not have to contain the destination directory name.

good luck,
Thierry.

[John Bolene]

Since you already have a tar file, tar will use the same directory structure in which it was saved. The path names can be relative or absolute. Absolute means that you have no control where it goes, it will go where it was saved from. Relative means that you can put the file under any other directory that you want it, but you will have to move it if that is not where you wanted it.

You can use the pipeline to create a tar and pipe it to another directory or machine.

An example would be tar cf - stufftobackup | remsh remotemachine 'cd /whateversubdir;tar xf -'

[Pete Mattison]

Okay, at least I know now and thanks for telling me :-)

Pete

[Darren Miller]

Pete,

Here's a kludge that should work for you:

# mkdir /usr/local/mysql
# ln -s /usr/local/mysql /mysql-3.23.32-hp-hpux10.20-hppa1.1
# tar -xvf mysql-3.23.32-hp-hpux10.20-hppa1.1.tar
# rm /mysql-3.23.32-hp-hpux10.20-hppa1.1

Hope that helps.

Darren