what do i do with .tar.gz files?

[sad_b0i]

how do i open them..or install them..i downloaded a couple of files that have these extensions but have no idea how to open them...anyone care to show me what to do?

[sincka]

1st: read man tar or tar --help

2nd:

bah.tar.gz
tar -zxvf bah.tar.gz

3rd: done

:)

[ 08 April 2001: Message edited by: sincka ]

[sincka]

Btw... that is if your file name is bah.tar.gz

so do

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

sometimes you will get something other than tar.gz that is why you should read man tar or tar --help

[sad_b0i]

well when i do that theres all these errors saing the file is read only..how do i change it?

[bdg1983]

Read Only? Try as root?

Remember that 'man <commandname>' is your new best friend when it comes to Linux.

Read the NHF on Compiling Software (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/compiling/softinstall.html). Explains all.

[sincka]

Try this as root:

chmod 777 filename.tar.gz

then:

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

[sad_b0i]

going in as root doest help...still says read only...cant make dir

chmod etc
gives me read-only file system

why is it read only?

i did both as root also...

[[GoRN]]

is this file on a cd or something?

try:
cp filename.tar.gz ~
cd ~
tar zxvf filename.tar.gz


good luck

[Tyr-7BE]

If you can't do it as root, then it seems like whatever drive this is on is read-only, meaning that NOBODY has write-permissions to it. Unless this is a CD or another partition that you've mounted, this is very strange indeed. If cp filename.tar.gz ~ doesn't work, then maybe try re-mounting the partition in read/write mode? "man mount" for more info.

[sad_b0i]

the file is on a cd...

[sincka]

So copy it from the CD and then do:

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

and if it still says read only do:

chmod 777 filename.tar.gz
then
tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz


Good luck

[sad_b0i]

always gives me an error when i copy from cd to desktop...even if i am root..
one thing i downloaded these files off of a win 2k machine....

could that be the problem?

[sincka]

I don't think that might be a problem, you sure your CD is not damaged or something... sorry man, I am out of ideas. Someone else will hopefuly be able to help.

[quandary]

Did you try typing the commands (as root) or did you try to click on the icon & drag it onto the desktop? If the latter, try copying it from the command line also, using the example [GoRN] gave earlier.

[ 08 April 2001: Message edited by: quandary ]

[sad_b0i]

i tried what gorn said and i got
read-only file system...

[bdg1983]

First copy it from CD to your HD.

Then as suggested...

Try this as root:
chmod 777 filename.tar.gz

then:

tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

[ihateBill]

First, i dont know how to help the thread starter. But I do have a question related to
tar.gz files. What is the difference between:
tar -zxvf thefile.tar.gz and tar zxvf thefile.tar.gz ? (-zxvf or zxvf)
Also, does it has to be zxvf or it can be xvzf or vxfz etc...as long as the z,x,v and f are there. Of course without the z if it is only .tar file...
thanks ;)

[Yvraine]

ihateBill:

You don't need the hyphen because tar assumes that the next thing after "tar" will be command-line options -- tar won't work without at least one option (you have to tell it whether you're tarring or untarring something, for instance).

I believe the first letter has to be the one which says what you're doing with the file (tar vs. untar). The others, like v for verbose and z for gzipping/ungzipping, can come in any order.

As far as the original thread topic goes, there's an option for tar that lists out all the files in the tarball -- including their paths. You have to make sure the untarring process will put the files where they expect to be. You may have to create the proper directory and copy the tarball there before you extract the files from it.

HTH

<edit> damn typos </edit>

[ 09 April 2001: Message edited by: Yvraine ]