need help with TAR

[potatohead]

Hi..

How do i see the file (content) inside a tar file?

Wayne

[teeitup]

tar tf filename.tar should do it.
If it's a large tar file pipe it to more.
tar tf filename.tar | more

Doesn't anyone read man pages anymore? :rolleyes:

[potatohead]

I did that... but i says it is not a tar archieve.... however, we are able to untar part of the file (using tar -xvzf [filename])... i dunno what's wrong

[DMR]

Originally posted by potatohead:
<STRONG>...we are able to untar part of the file (using tar -xvzf [filename])</STRONG>Since you're using the -z option (which runs the file through gzip first), it sounds like this might be a .tar.gz file. If so, the "tar -tf" won't work, because the file needs to be uncompressed by gzip before it exists as a raw .tar. file.

Here's what I get when I try "tar -tf" on a .tar.gz file:
[root@penguinbox /home/dave]# tar -tf /usr/lib/bx/script/fserve+vfs.tar.gz
tar: 380 garbage bytes ignored at end of archive
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

[ 17 November 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[Choozo]

*.tar.gz files: tar ztvf filename.tar.gz | more

*.tar files: tar tvf filename.tar | more

That should list the contents of the archive (don't forget the 'v' flag - verbose).

Cheers :)