From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 7 07:36:33 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D9E516A4CF for ; Fri, 7 Nov 2003 07:36:33 -0800 (PST) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (dc.cis.okstate.edu [139.78.100.219]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5557243FEC for ; Fri, 7 Nov 2003 07:36:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (localhost.cis.okstate.edu [127.0.0.1]) by dc.cis.okstate.edu (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id hA7FaVLH000826 for ; Fri, 7 Nov 2003 09:36:31 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Message-Id: <200311071536.hA7FaVLH000826@dc.cis.okstate.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 09:36:31 -0600 From: Martin McCormick Subject: Re: Extracting individual Files via tar X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 15:36:33 -0000 My thanks to 3 people who pointed out the error of my ways. I actually had the positions of the archive and the file I was extracting reversed as far as what I was thinking should be the correct order. Then, I thought maybe I didn't need to have the f flag. Anyway, it all works fine now. Many thanks. Martin McCormick "Rob" writes: >You should always use the f option to specify the archive - for example > > tar -tzf archive.tgz > >to list or > > tar -xzf archive.tgz > >to extract. In your example below, you didn't specify an archive so it >defaulted to the device /dev/sa0, which it couldn't open. > >Any extra arguments are treated as archive members - eg > > tar -xzf archive.tgz files/to/extract > >In your example below, it was trying to find 2 files in a non-existent >archive. > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Martin McCormick" >Subject: Extracting individual Files via tar > > >> The command >> >> tar ztf /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz >> >> produces a table of contents just like the man page says it should. >> The man page also says that individual files can be recovered or >> listed but I haven't gotten that to work at all. if I try: >> >> $ tar zt ports/print/pstotext/ /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz >> >> tar (child): /dev/sa0: Cannot open: Permission denied >> tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now >> >> gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file >> tar: Child returned status 2 >> tar: ports/print/pstotext: Not found in archive >> tar: /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz: Not found in archive >> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors >> >> In the successful test, tar obviously knew which specification >> was the archive and was able to uncompress it with the z flag. The >> file specification I am attempting to recover from the archive throws >> tar completely off. I looked in the handbook and all the examples I >> found were the more usual procedure of unpacking whole file systems >> as in >> >> tar zxf somedir/archive.tar.gz >> >> I'm not having trouble with that use of tar. >> >> Thank you. >> >> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK >> OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >"freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >> >