create a tar file

[Gemini_2]

Hi, my tar files are under ~/test. when I create the tar ball, I want it to prefix with /tmp. how do I do that?

for example
my step now is
cd ~/
tar -cvf test.tar test/*

tar -tvf show
~/test/1
~/test/2

how can I change it to
/tmp/test/1
/tmp/test/2

I know that I can move files to /tmp, and then create the patch there...but is there a better way?

thank you

[Torsten.]

simply specify the output path to the tar command:

tar -cvf /tmp/test.tar test/*

[generic_1]

remove test/ from your syntax cd into that directory and do tar -cvf /yourfile.tar *. Then cd to the restore directory say /tmp/test1 and restore there.

[Rodney Hills]

Usually you don't want absolute path names in a tar file.

cd ~/
tar cf test.tar test/*

is what you want to do.

To restore to tmp, you would then

cd /tmp
tar xf ~/test.tar

gnu tar might be able to do what you want.

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Generally speaking making 'tar' archives with relative paths provides the most flexability.

That said, however, I'd look at 'pax' ('tar's cousin). 'pax' gives you the opportunity to do regular expresssion substitutions o the archive member names.

See the man pages for 'pax' and the '-s' option therein.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Gemini_2]

the tar file is created and used by others.

in case if people forget to cd to /tmp, I still want tar to handle it, that is why.

look the only solution is
cp ~/tests/* /tmp/tests.
tar -cv test.tar /tmp/tests/*

hmm.....

[Gemini_2]

pax is not standard linux redhat rpm package right?

[Tim D Fulford]

Hi

DONT make absolute tar files, you get get in a whole heap of problems doing this...

try

# cd /tmp; tar xf test.tar

Tim

[Rodney Hills]

"pax" is an hpux utility.

That is what this forum is about....

Rod Hills

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

'pax' exists on AIX too! It's not just HP-UX.

Regards!

p.s. Thanks, Rodney :-)

...JRF...

[Bharat Katkar]

hi,
Other than copying ~/test to /tmp/test i also see one more solution that is to have small script which will cd to /tmp and then extract the tar file there.

"tar cvf test.tar ./test/*"

then provide that tar file alongwith thescript as :

#!/usr/bin/ksh
cd /tmp
tar xvf test.tar
cd

That's all.
regards,