UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have file1.tar and want to untar it under /server/file2.

If I do tar -xvf file1.tar, the files will be deployed under file1.

How to specify the destination folder??
thx

I suggest to place the tar file in the directory you would like the files to be untarred to. Then when you untar the files should be placed in that directory.
The exception is if the files were tarred with / preceding the path. Then the files will be untarred to the root directory.

You can determine where the files will be untarred by using the t option.
tar -tvf files.tar will show you the paths of where the files will be untarred.

thx. So I understand from you that I can't specify the location when untaring. Right??

thx

Its more like this. If you do a tar -tvf and you see that the paths are
myfiles/file1.txt
myfiles/file2.txt
if you put the tar file in /usr and extract it then the path for the files become
/usr/myfiles/file1.txt
/usr/myfiles/file2.txt

the only exception is if you do a tar -tvf and you see the paths are
/myfiles/file1.txt
/myfiles/file2.txt
then because of that leading / the file path for the files will become
/myfiles/file1.txt
/myfiles/file2.txt
no matter where you extract the tar.

Hope that makes makes it easier