Commands using tar (226)

  • XZIP many catalogs

    Find (by regular expression) and compress (xzip) catalogs then remove source catalogs


    0
    find . -type d |awk '$1 ~ /[0-9]/ {print $0}' |xargs -P 4 -I NAME tar --remove-files -vcJf NAME.tar.xz NAME
    Glafir · 2017-08-28 08:05:29 19
  • Create a local compressed tarball from remote host directory

    untar in place with out creating a temporary file


    0
    ssh user@host "tar -zcf - /path/to/dir" | tar -xvz
    sandeep048 · 2017-10-07 11:37:51 18
  • tar and bz2 a set of folders as individual files

    I use screenflow to create and edit videos. The default storage for a single video is a folder. If I want to move that someplace, it's easier to zip up the folder and send it. If I'm making a series of short videos, I might have 10 folders. This will go through and make a single bz3 file for EACH folder.


    0
    for f in *screenflow ; do tar cvf "$f.tar.bz2" "$f"; done
    topher1kenobe · 2020-08-02 21:10:27 161
  • Uncompress a directory full of tarred files (*.gz)

    This is a little bash script that will take all files following the *gz pattern in the directory and apply the tar -zxvf command to them.


    -1
    for i in *.tar.gz *.tgz; do tar -zxvf $i; done
    bohemicus · 2009-02-18 10:58:12 8
  • Copy files from one dir to another using tar.

    Add z to the flags to enable compression.


    -1
    tar cf - . | (cd /new/dir; tar xvf -)
    jauderho · 2009-03-09 20:30:34 12
  • Encrypted Tarballs

    gpg's compression is as suitable as gzip's however your backups can now be encrypted. to extract use: gpg < folder.tpg | tar -xf -


    -1
    tar -cf - folder/ | gpg -c > folder.tpg
    copremesis · 2009-05-08 19:20:08 5
  • Move files around local filesystem with tar without wasting space using an intermediate tarball.


    -1
    tar -C <source> -cf - . | tar -C <destination> -xf -
    Tekhne · 2009-07-10 21:16:23 4
  • Tar - Compress by excluding folders

    Tar - Compress by excluding folders Show Sample Output


    -1
    tar -cvf /path/dir.tar /path/dir* --exclude "/path/dir/name" --exclude "/path/dir/opt"
    sandeepverma · 2009-12-15 09:48:41 3
  • wget, tar xzvf, cd, ls

    Combines a few repetitive tasks when compiling source code. Especially useful when a hypen in a file-name breaks tab completion. 1.) wget source.tar.gz 2.) tar xzvf source.tar.gz 3.) cd source 4.) ls From there you can run ./configure, make and etc. Show Sample Output


    -1
    wtzc () { wget "$@"; foo=`echo "$@" | sed 's:.*/::'`; tar xzvf $foo; blah=`echo $foo | sed 's:,*/::'`; bar=`echo $blah | sed -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/' -e 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/'`; cd $bar; ls; }
    oshazard · 2010-01-17 11:25:47 3
  • Merge tarballs

    You don't need to create an intermediate file, just pipe the output directly to tar command and use stin as file (put a dash after the f flag).


    -1
    cat 1.tar.gz 2.tar.gz | tar zxvif -
    psychopenguin · 2010-05-09 03:50:00 5
  • Create .tar file on Mac OS X Leopard / Snow Leopard without ._* files

    Using the COPYFILE_DISABLE=true environment variable you can prevent tar from adding any ._-files to your .tar-file on Mac OS X.


    -1
    COPYFILE_DISABLE=true tar cvf newTarFile.tar Directory/
    alainkaa · 2010-07-01 09:36:48 3
  • pbzip2 tar pipe to untar


    -1
    pbzip2 -dck <bz2file> | tar xvf -
    maarten · 2010-08-16 22:16:50 3
  • Create a tar file compressed with xz.

    The J option is a recent addition to GNU tar. The xz compression utility is required as well.


    -1
    tar cfJ tarfile.tar.xz pathnames
    jasonjgw · 2010-11-18 05:34:17 2
  • restore <mysqldump>.tar.gz on the fly

    `tar xfzO` extracts to STDOUT which got redirected directly to mysql. Really helpful, when your hard drive can't fit two copies of non-compressed database :)


    -1
    tar xfzO <backup_name>.tar.gz | mysql -u root <database_name>
    alecnmk · 2011-02-10 22:18:42 5
  • Extract 2 copies of .tar.gz content

    Sometimes you might need to have two copies of data that is in tar. You might unpack, and then copy, but if IO is slow, you might lower it by automatically writing it twice (or more times)


    -1
    mkdir copy{1,2}; gzip -dc file.tar.gz | tee >( tar x -C copy1/ ) | tar x -C copy2/
    depesz · 2011-04-14 17:02:05 5
  • Compressed Backup of the /etc

    Simple Compressed Backup of the /etc Linux compatible


    -1
    tar jcpf /home/[usuario]/etc-$(hostname)-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.bz2 /etc
    mack · 2011-04-29 22:53:11 4
  • tar the current directory wihtout the absolute path

    should do the same as command #12875, just shorter.


    -1
    tar -cf "../${PWD##*/}.tar" .
    joedhon · 2013-11-06 11:15:38 9
  • backup file with tar

    backup your files in tar archive + timestamp of backup Show Sample Output


    -1
    tar -cvf bind9-config-`date +%s`.tar *
    Fuonum · 2014-10-29 05:15:15 9
  • Copy files over network using compression

    This is useful for sending data between 2 computers that you have shell access to. Uses tar compression during transfer. Files are compressed & uncompressed automatically. Note the trailing dash on the listening side that makes netcat listen to stdin for data. on the listening side: sudo nc -lp 2022 | sudo tar -xvf - explanation: open netcat to -l listen on -p port 2022, take the data stream and pipe to tar -x extract, -v verbose, -f using file filename - means "stdin" on the sending side: tar -cvzf - ./*| nc -w 3 name_of_listening_host 2022 explanation: compress all files in current dir using tar -c create, -v verbose, -f using file, - filename - here means "stdout" because we're tar -c instead of tar -x, -w3 wait 3 seconds on stream termination and then end the connection to the listening host name_of_listening_host, on port 2022


    -2
    on the listening side: sudo nc -lp 2022 | sudo tar -xvf - and on the sending side: tar -cvzf - ./*| nc -w 3 name_of_listening_host 2022
    smcpherson · 2009-03-27 09:59:33 12
  • create tar.gz archive

    Create a single tar.gz archive I know it's a very basic one, but it's one I keep forgetting. Show Sample Output


    -2
    tar -pczf archive_name.tar.gz /path/to/dir/or/file
    ryuslash · 2009-07-17 19:53:02 30
  • Bulk copy large blocks of data between File Systems (run as root iff you do not own all of the files!)

    Using tape archive create a tar file in Stdout (-) and pipe that into a compound command to extract the tar file from Stdin at the destination. This similar to "Copy via tar pipe ...", but copies across file systems boundaries. I prefer to use cp -pr for copying within the same file system. Show Sample Output


    -2
    tar cpof - src |( cd des; tar xpof -)
    davidpotter42 · 2009-09-20 20:43:30 3
  • List files in tarballs

    This script will list all the files in the tarballs present on any folder or subfolder of the provided path. The while loop is for echoing the file name of the tarball before listing the files, so the tarball can be identified


    -2
    find <path> -name "*.tgz" -or -name "*.tar.gz" | while read file; do echo "$file: "; tar -tzf $file; done
    polaco · 2009-11-10 20:39:04 36
  • List files in tarballs

    The magic is performed by the parameter -t Show Sample Output


    -2
    for F in $(find ./ -name "*.tgz") ; do tar -tvzf $F ; done
    alchandia · 2009-11-11 00:50:52 3
  • transfer files locally to be sure that file permissions are kept correctly showing progress

    This may seem like a long command, but it is great for making sure all file permissions are kept in tact. What it is doing is streaming the files in a sub-shell and then untarring them in the target directory. Please note that the -z command should not be used for local files and no perfomance increase will be visible as overhead processing (CPU) will be evident, and will slow down the copy. You also may keep simple with, but you don't have the progress info: cp -rpf /some/directory /other/path Show Sample Output


    -2
    dir='path to file'; tar cpf - "$dir" | pv -s $(du -sb "$dir" | awk '{print $1}') | tar xpf - -C /other/path
    starchox · 2010-01-19 19:05:45 3
  • Remove all files previously extracted from a tar(.gz) file.

    xargs deals badly with special characters (such as space, ' and "). To see the problem try this: touch important_file touch 'not important_file' ls not* | xargs rm Parallel https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/parallel/ does not have this problem.


    -2
    tar -tf <file.tar.gz> | parallel rm
    unixmonkey8046 · 2010-01-28 08:28:16 3
  • ‹ First  < 6 7 8 9 10 > 

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands

Check These Out

chmod - change file permissions of a file to be similar of another

Download SSL server certificate with opsnessl
Useful when we need to create new certificate for site when current one is near expiry. This downloaded cert can be used to provide organisational data directly to new cert. using below command. e.g. openssl x509 -x509toreq -in /tmp/example.com.cert -out example.com.csr -signkey example.com-key.pem

run complex remote shell cmds over ssh, without escaping quotes
It executes commands as arguments to ssh, avoiding problematic shell expansions, without the need of writing the commands in question to a temporary file, just reading them from STDIN.

Create a mirror of a local folder, on a remote server
Create a exact mirror of the local folder "/root/files", on remote server 'remote_server' using SSH command (listening on port 22) (all files & folders on destination server/folder will be deleted)

Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn't have ssh-copy-id
If you use Mac OS X or some other *nix variant that doesn't come with ssh-copy-id, this one-liner will allow you to add your public key to a remote machine so you can subsequently ssh to that machine without a password.

Rename all .jpeg and .JPG files to have .jpg extension
the "i" controls case sensitiveness. It's slightly inefficient since it uselessly renames .jpg to .jpg, but that's more than compensated by launching only one process instead of two, besides being shorter to write.

PRINT LINE the width of screen or specified using any char including Colors, Escapes and metachars
One of the first functions programmers learn is how to print a line. This is my 100% bash builtin function to do it, which makes it as optimal as a function can be. The COLUMNS environment variable is also set by bash (including bash resetting its value when you resize your term) so its very efficient. I like pretty-output in my shells and have experimented with several ways to output a line the width of the screen using a minimal amount of code. This is like version 9,000 lol. This function is what I use, though when using colors or other terminal features I create separate functions that call this one, since this is the lowest level type of function. It might be better named printl(), but since I use it so much it's more optimal to have the name contain less chars (both for my programming and for the internal workings). If you do use terminal escapes this will reset to default. $ tput sgr0 For implementation ideas, check my http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html

Rename files in batch

Display 16 largest installed RPMs in size order, largest first
Interesting to see which packages are larger than the kernel package. Useful to understand which RPMs might be candidates to remove if drive space is restricted.

Purge configuration files of removed packages on debian based systems
also search with aptitude search '~c'

Stay in the loop…

Follow the Tweets.

Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.

» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10

Subscribe to the feeds.

Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):

Subscribe to the feed for: