UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Guys,

I am able to untar a tar.gz file. But it is again extracting the tar file to further child directory.

I even tried the below command to untar it to particular directory.

Code:

tar -zxvf gme_dly_sls_20120515035335.txt.tar.gz -C /sites/VSTAR/site/live/ftp/GMEUROPE

I am getting the below errors.

Code:

tar: appl: Cannot mkdir: Permission denied
tar: appl/data/VSTAR/global_daily/input/GME/gme_dly_sls_20120515035335.txt: Cannot open: No such file or directory
sites/VSTAR/site/live/ftp/GMEUROPE/globaldaily_download/gme_dly_sls_20120515035335.ctl
tar: sites: Cannot mkdir: Permission denied
tar: sites/VSTAR/site/live/ftp/GMEUROPE/globaldaily_download/gme_dly_sls_20120515035335.ctl: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Can somebody help me out here.

Cheers!!!!

Start by looking if the archive was created with relative OR absolute path:

Code:

gzcat gme_dly_sls_20120515035335.txt.tar.gz | tar - tvf - | more

If its absolute PATH you are doomed...( well it becomes very hard ...)

As advised above, first check whether the archive was created with absolute paths. If it was, then do not proceed with tar. Either get the archive re-created with relative paths (recommended) or consider using the unix pax command to unpack the archive and alter the target paths (not easy - try with test data first).

The directory in the -C command must exist already. All tar does is issue a "cd" to that directory and then start extracting files. If the archive contains absolute paths, the -C parameter is irrelevant. If the directory does exist, make sure that you are using the root account or an account which has permission to create subdirectories with arbitary permissions.

Please remember to post what Operating System and version you are running.

Hi Guys, thanks for your answers,,,

Yes the tar is created using the absolute (/usr/...... ) path only.
The path /sites/VSTAR/site/live/ftp/GMEUROPE is already present.. maybe i should try with pax command.

can somebody help me out with pax... its the first time i am hearing the command.

Something like

Code:

pax -s '/\/usr\//.\//' -r < inputfile

I think. The -s expression is a regex like '/original/replacement/'. A lot of backslashes needed to get /'s in there unfortunately.