copy paste multiple binary files

tar -c bins/ | gzip -9 | openssl enc -base64

Useful when you have multiple files or binary files that you need to transfer to a different host and scp or the like is unavailable. To unpack on the destination host copy paste output using the opposite order: openssl enc -d -base64 | gunzip | tar -x Terminate openssl input using ^d Note: gzip is outside of tar because using -z in tar produces lots of extra padding.

Sample Output

[foobar@awesome ~]$ ll
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 foobar foobar 4096 2011-02-24 15:02 bins
[foobar@awesome ~]$ tar -c bins/ | gzip -9 | openssl enc -base64
H4sIAKLXZk0CA+3VMUrEQBQG4MHSE4g2kwu4eZl5k2XbLQQ7sdoykRiDkEjmLWwn
iJUHEBUv4h0UK1uxsBAsLSw1UVmwWKyyy8r/NTNvZrqfn0mL0vdUt8JGzPy9Oteu
FHP0Nf9QRGyIOXJkVUhkIqc0qzkYe0lqrdV+VaVJPfvdX/dLKm3zl8xLUeabzdBV
/s7a2fk3+2n+YXNOxrpY6RD5d+51/eEuONl+eT9/2jrdHcngaJI9y+3KzvHV5cfj
4fXZsP92f7Fxk68p+Id+9V8mspD+GzvtP7f/BBm2jP7Pw7Aq8zoRH+hRNdZ7Sal9
lmk5KHywinYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsh08a2nTbACgAAA==
[foobar@awesome ~]$ rm -fr bins
[foobar@awesome ~]$ openssl enc -d -base64 | gunzip | tar -x
H4sIAKLXZk0CA+3VMUrEQBQG4MHSE4g2kwu4eZl5k2XbLQQ7sdoykRiDkEjmLWwn
iJUHEBUv4h0UK1uxsBAsLSw1UVmwWKyyy8r/NTNvZrqfn0mL0vdUt8JGzPy9Oteu
FHP0Nf9QRGyIOXJkVUhkIqc0qzkYe0lqrdV+VaVJPfvdX/dLKm3zl8xLUeabzdBV
/s7a2fk3+2n+YXNOxrpY6RD5d+51/eEuONl+eT9/2jrdHcngaJI9y+3KzvHV5cfj
4fXZsP92f7Fxk68p+Id+9V8mspD+GzvtP7f/BBm2jP7Pw7Aq8zoRH+hRNdZ7Sal9
lmk5KHywinYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsh08a2nTbACgAAA==
[foobar@awesome ~]$ ll
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 foobar foobar 4096 2011-02-24 15:02 bins

By: mweed

2011-02-24 22:15:23

gzip tar

Submit An Alternative

What Others Think

why not use tar -cz?

coffeeaddict_nl · 630 weeks and 4 days ago

updated notes with explanation. Basically tar -cz uses more space/padding. du -sh wheee/ 20K wheee/ tar -cz wheee/ | wc -c 10240 tar -c wheee/ | gzip | wc -c 767

mweed · 630 weeks and 3 days ago

rahimhh21 · 30 weeks and 6 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 21 weeks and 5 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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