How do you extract a single folder from a large tar.gz archive?
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
up vote
97
down vote
favorite
I am using this command on a 5GB archive
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz /folder/in/archive
is this the correct way to do this? It seems to be taking forever with no command line output...
shell tar gzip
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
add a comment |Â
up vote
97
down vote
favorite
I am using this command on a 5GB archive
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz /folder/in/archive
is this the correct way to do this? It seems to be taking forever with no command line output...
shell tar gzip
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
3
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archivetaris withcat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0(adapt the command if you have more than onetarprocess running).
– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
The important part is also no trailing slash. Usingfolder/folder2/won't work.
– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49
add a comment |Â
up vote
97
down vote
favorite
up vote
97
down vote
favorite
I am using this command on a 5GB archive
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz /folder/in/archive
is this the correct way to do this? It seems to be taking forever with no command line output...
shell tar gzip
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
I am using this command on a 5GB archive
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz /folder/in/archive
is this the correct way to do this? It seems to be taking forever with no command line output...
shell tar gzip
shell tar gzip
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
edited Apr 10 '17 at 19:14
don_crissti
47.4k15126155
47.4k15126155
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
asked Mar 29 '12 at 14:00
Garrett Hall
1,28631311
1,28631311
Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
3
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archivetaris withcat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0(adapt the command if you have more than onetarprocess running).
– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
The important part is also no trailing slash. Usingfolder/folder2/won't work.
– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49
add a comment |Â
Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
3
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archivetaris withcat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0(adapt the command if you have more than onetarprocess running).
– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
The important part is also no trailing slash. Usingfolder/folder2/won't work.
– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49
Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
3
3
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archive
tar is with cat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0 (adapt the command if you have more than one tar process running).– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archive
tar is with cat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0 (adapt the command if you have more than one tar process running).– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
The important part is also no trailing slash. Using
folder/folder2/ won't work.– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49
The important part is also no trailing slash. Using
folder/folder2/ won't work.– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
110
down vote
accepted
tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:
tar -cf foo.tar /home/foo
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
If you need to extract a particular folder, have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar
And note the exact filename. In the case of my foo.tar file, I could extract /home/foo/bar by saying:
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash
So no, the way you posted isn't (necessarily) the correct way to do it. You have to leave out the leading slash. If you want to simulate absolute paths, do cd / first and make sure you're the superuser. Also, this does the same:
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option
There are very obvious, good reasons why tar converts paths to relative ones. One is the ability to restore an archive in places other than its original source. The other is security. You could extract an archive, expect its files to appear in your current working directory, and instead overwrite system files (or your own work) elsewhere by mistake.
Note: if you use the -P option, tar will archive absolute paths. So it always pays to check the contents of big archives before extracting.
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
22
--strip-components=Nmay be useful to some here.
– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
in my case it was necessary to write./foldername/instead offoldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it withtar -cvf santi.tar ./*and when I "listed" the tar this is what it saiddrwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/
– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
And about.gz?
– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change-xvfto-xzvf(adding the-zoption) and obviouslyfoo.tartofoo.tar.gzor whatever your archive is named. The same holds for-j(bz2) and on some recent versions,-J(xz). Otherwise, a pipeline likezcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - …also works.
– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
110
down vote
accepted
tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:
tar -cf foo.tar /home/foo
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
If you need to extract a particular folder, have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar
And note the exact filename. In the case of my foo.tar file, I could extract /home/foo/bar by saying:
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash
So no, the way you posted isn't (necessarily) the correct way to do it. You have to leave out the leading slash. If you want to simulate absolute paths, do cd / first and make sure you're the superuser. Also, this does the same:
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option
There are very obvious, good reasons why tar converts paths to relative ones. One is the ability to restore an archive in places other than its original source. The other is security. You could extract an archive, expect its files to appear in your current working directory, and instead overwrite system files (or your own work) elsewhere by mistake.
Note: if you use the -P option, tar will archive absolute paths. So it always pays to check the contents of big archives before extracting.
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
22
--strip-components=Nmay be useful to some here.
– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
in my case it was necessary to write./foldername/instead offoldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it withtar -cvf santi.tar ./*and when I "listed" the tar this is what it saiddrwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/
– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
And about.gz?
– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change-xvfto-xzvf(adding the-zoption) and obviouslyfoo.tartofoo.tar.gzor whatever your archive is named. The same holds for-j(bz2) and on some recent versions,-J(xz). Otherwise, a pipeline likezcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - …also works.
– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
add a comment |Â
up vote
110
down vote
accepted
tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:
tar -cf foo.tar /home/foo
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
If you need to extract a particular folder, have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar
And note the exact filename. In the case of my foo.tar file, I could extract /home/foo/bar by saying:
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash
So no, the way you posted isn't (necessarily) the correct way to do it. You have to leave out the leading slash. If you want to simulate absolute paths, do cd / first and make sure you're the superuser. Also, this does the same:
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option
There are very obvious, good reasons why tar converts paths to relative ones. One is the ability to restore an archive in places other than its original source. The other is security. You could extract an archive, expect its files to appear in your current working directory, and instead overwrite system files (or your own work) elsewhere by mistake.
Note: if you use the -P option, tar will archive absolute paths. So it always pays to check the contents of big archives before extracting.
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
22
--strip-components=Nmay be useful to some here.
– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
in my case it was necessary to write./foldername/instead offoldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it withtar -cvf santi.tar ./*and when I "listed" the tar this is what it saiddrwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/
– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
And about.gz?
– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change-xvfto-xzvf(adding the-zoption) and obviouslyfoo.tartofoo.tar.gzor whatever your archive is named. The same holds for-j(bz2) and on some recent versions,-J(xz). Otherwise, a pipeline likezcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - …also works.
– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
add a comment |Â
up vote
110
down vote
accepted
up vote
110
down vote
accepted
tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:
tar -cf foo.tar /home/foo
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
If you need to extract a particular folder, have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar
And note the exact filename. In the case of my foo.tar file, I could extract /home/foo/bar by saying:
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash
So no, the way you posted isn't (necessarily) the correct way to do it. You have to leave out the leading slash. If you want to simulate absolute paths, do cd / first and make sure you're the superuser. Also, this does the same:
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option
There are very obvious, good reasons why tar converts paths to relative ones. One is the ability to restore an archive in places other than its original source. The other is security. You could extract an archive, expect its files to appear in your current working directory, and instead overwrite system files (or your own work) elsewhere by mistake.
Note: if you use the -P option, tar will archive absolute paths. So it always pays to check the contents of big archives before extracting.
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:
tar -cf foo.tar /home/foo
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
If you need to extract a particular folder, have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar
And note the exact filename. In the case of my foo.tar file, I could extract /home/foo/bar by saying:
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash
So no, the way you posted isn't (necessarily) the correct way to do it. You have to leave out the leading slash. If you want to simulate absolute paths, do cd / first and make sure you're the superuser. Also, this does the same:
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option
There are very obvious, good reasons why tar converts paths to relative ones. One is the ability to restore an archive in places other than its original source. The other is security. You could extract an archive, expect its files to appear in your current working directory, and instead overwrite system files (or your own work) elsewhere by mistake.
Note: if you use the -P option, tar will archive absolute paths. So it always pays to check the contents of big archives before extracting.
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
edited May 22 '14 at 12:25
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
answered Mar 29 '12 at 14:35
Alexios
13.8k14665
13.8k14665
22
--strip-components=Nmay be useful to some here.
– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
in my case it was necessary to write./foldername/instead offoldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it withtar -cvf santi.tar ./*and when I "listed" the tar this is what it saiddrwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/
– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
And about.gz?
– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change-xvfto-xzvf(adding the-zoption) and obviouslyfoo.tartofoo.tar.gzor whatever your archive is named. The same holds for-j(bz2) and on some recent versions,-J(xz). Otherwise, a pipeline likezcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - …also works.
– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
add a comment |Â
22
--strip-components=Nmay be useful to some here.
– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
in my case it was necessary to write./foldername/instead offoldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it withtar -cvf santi.tar ./*and when I "listed" the tar this is what it saiddrwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/
– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
And about.gz?
– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change-xvfto-xzvf(adding the-zoption) and obviouslyfoo.tartofoo.tar.gzor whatever your archive is named. The same holds for-j(bz2) and on some recent versions,-J(xz). Otherwise, a pipeline likezcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - …also works.
– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
22
22
--strip-components=N may be useful to some here.– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
--strip-components=N may be useful to some here.– A-B-B
Jul 18 '14 at 21:57
2
2
in my case it was necessary to write
./foldername/ instead of foldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it with tar -cvf santi.tar ./* and when I "listed" the tar this is what it said drwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
in my case it was necessary to write
./foldername/ instead of foldername, I guess that it was because when I created the tar I created it with tar -cvf santi.tar ./* and when I "listed" the tar this is what it said drwxr-xr-x santi/santi 0 2016-04-11 09:42 ./foldername/– santiago arizti
Nov 30 '16 at 3:32
1
1
And about
.gz ?– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
And about
.gz ?– Peter Krauss
Aug 4 '17 at 23:04
@PeterKrauss change
-xvf to -xzvf (adding the -z option) and obviously foo.tar to foo.tar.gz or whatever your archive is named. The same holds for -j (bz2) and on some recent versions, -J (xz). Otherwise, a pipeline like zcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - … also works.– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
@PeterKrauss change
-xvf to -xzvf (adding the -z option) and obviously foo.tar to foo.tar.gz or whatever your archive is named. The same holds for -j (bz2) and on some recent versions, -J (xz). Otherwise, a pipeline like zcat foo.tar.gz | tar -xvf - … also works.– Alexios
Aug 5 '17 at 6:40
add a comment |Â
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Did you use an absolute or relative path? Should be relative, other than that it looks right. How long did you let it run, and how good is your system? It will take at least several minutes on a fast machine. Potentially an hour or more? I'm running a test now.
– Kevin
Mar 29 '12 at 14:20
Yes, it completed after ~1hr, but the absolute path was wrong, you were correct.
– Garrett Hall
Mar 29 '12 at 14:43
3
On Linux, you can watch how far into the archive
taris withcat /proc/$(pidof tar)/fdinfo/0(adapt the command if you have more than onetarprocess running).– Gilles
Mar 29 '12 at 22:35
The important part is also no trailing slash. Using
folder/folder2/won't work.– Marki555
Mar 20 '17 at 9:49