Commands using tar (226)

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Add z to the flags to enable compression.


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

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

  • -1
    pbzip2 -dck <bz2file> | tar xvf -
    maarten · 2010-08-16 22:16:50 3
  • 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
  • `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
  • 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
  • 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
  • should do the same as command #12875, just shorter.


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

Screenshot pipe to remote host, adding URL to clipboard, notifying when done. (without saving locally)
Requires you to have password free login to remote host ;) Requires xclip and notify-send (If you want to put into clipboard and be notified when action is completed). DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)-$(($(date +%N)/10000000)); HOST="ssh host of your choice"; DEST="destination folder without trailing slash"; URL="URL for file if uploaded to web enabled dir ie. http://$HOST/~user/screenshot_$DATE.png"; import -window root png:- | ssh $HOST "cat > $DEST/screenshot_$DATE.png"; echo $URL | xclip; notify-send -u low "Screenshot Taken" "Entire screen.\nCopied to clipboard"

List your installed Chromium extensions (with url to each page)
Gives you a list for all installed chrome (chromium) extensions with URL to the page of the extension. With this you can easy add a new Bookmark folder called "extensions" add every URL to that folder, so it will be synced and you can access the names from every computer you are logged in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Only tested with chromium, for chrome you maybe have to change the find $PATH.

Convert embedded spaces in filenames to "_" (underscore)
This command converts filenames with embedded spaces in the current directory replacing spaces with the underscore ("_") character.

Fetch the current human population of Earth
Fetches the world population JSON data from the US census and parses it uses jshon

Extract dd-image from VirtualBox VDI container and mount it
Tested with NTFS and found on this site: http://forensicir.blogspot.com/2008/01/virtualbox-and-forensics-tools.html The first 32256 bytes is the MBR

drop first column of output by piping to this

Run the built in PHP-server in current folder
You must have PHP 5.4.0 or later to be able to run the built in server. This web server is designed for developmental purposes only, and should not be used in production. URI requests are served from the current working directory where PHP was started, unless the -t option is used to specify an explicit document root. If a URI request does not specify a file, then either index.php or index.html in the given directory are returned. If neither file exists, then a 404 response code is returned. If a PHP file is given on the command line when the web server is started it is treated as a "router" script. The script is run at the start of each HTTP request. If this script returns FALSE, then the requested resource is returned as-is. Otherwise the script's output is returned to the browser. Standard MIME types are returned for files with extensions: .css, .gif, .htm, .html, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .js, .png, .svg, and .txt. The .htm and .svg extensions are recognized from PHP 5.4.4 onwards. More information here: http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php

Get all mac address
I prefer the ip command to ifconfig as ifconfig is supposedly going to be deprecated. Certain IP address aliases can only be seen with the ip command (such as the ones applied by RHCS).

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS
Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

list block devices
Shows all block devices in a tree with descruptions of what they are.


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: