Untar single file to desired name

up vote
4
down vote

favorite

When I tar a single file, I can give the tar file a desired name:

$ tar -cvfj A B

I would like to do the same when I untar a single file.

$ tar -xvjf A tmp

(ie. extract A into tmp).

I was trying to do this using mv:

$ tar -xvjf $1 | mv $1 tmp

That didn't work. $1 can be an arbitrary name, but the tar files will always be a single file, no folders (this is guaranteed).

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

Are you just using tar for compression? If so, don't do that; just use the compression program directly (bzip2 in your case)
â€“Â Fox
Sep 2 at 20:27

@Fox yes, I am. What difference does it make?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 20:28

3

If your local tar implementation does not create a file named j in your first example, it is broken.
â€“Â schily
Sep 2 at 20:31

1

Use -C : tar -xvjf $1 -C tmp
â€“Â GAD3R
Sep 2 at 20:43

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
4
down vote

favorite

When I tar a single file, I can give the tar file a desired name:

$ tar -cvfj A B

I would like to do the same when I untar a single file.

$ tar -xvjf A tmp

(ie. extract A into tmp).

I was trying to do this using mv:

$ tar -xvjf $1 | mv $1 tmp

That didn't work. $1 can be an arbitrary name, but the tar files will always be a single file, no folders (this is guaranteed).

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

Are you just using tar for compression? If so, don't do that; just use the compression program directly (bzip2 in your case)
â€“Â Fox
Sep 2 at 20:27

@Fox yes, I am. What difference does it make?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 20:28

3

If your local tar implementation does not create a file named j in your first example, it is broken.
â€“Â schily
Sep 2 at 20:31

1

Use -C : tar -xvjf $1 -C tmp
â€“Â GAD3R
Sep 2 at 20:43

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
4
down vote

favorite

When I tar a single file, I can give the tar file a desired name:

$ tar -cvfj A B

I would like to do the same when I untar a single file.

$ tar -xvjf A tmp

(ie. extract A into tmp).

I was trying to do this using mv:

$ tar -xvjf $1 | mv $1 tmp

That didn't work. $1 can be an arbitrary name, but the tar files will always be a single file, no folders (this is guaranteed).

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

When I tar a single file, I can give the tar file a desired name:

$ tar -cvfj A B

I would like to do the same when I untar a single file.

$ tar -xvjf A tmp

(ie. extract A into tmp).

I was trying to do this using mv:

$ tar -xvjf $1 | mv $1 tmp

That didn't work. $1 can be an arbitrary name, but the tar files will always be a single file, no folders (this is guaranteed).

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

edited Sep 3 at 4:00

slmâ™¦

237k65486659

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

asked Sep 2 at 20:11

Spent Death

254

Are you just using tar for compression? If so, don't do that; just use the compression program directly (bzip2 in your case)
â€“Â Fox
Sep 2 at 20:27

@Fox yes, I am. What difference does it make?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 20:28

3

If your local tar implementation does not create a file named j in your first example, it is broken.
â€“Â schily
Sep 2 at 20:31

1

Use -C : tar -xvjf $1 -C tmp
â€“Â GAD3R
Sep 2 at 20:43

add a commentÂ |Â

Are you just using tar for compression? If so, don't do that; just use the compression program directly (bzip2 in your case)
â€“Â Fox
Sep 2 at 20:27

@Fox yes, I am. What difference does it make?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 20:28

3

If your local tar implementation does not create a file named j in your first example, it is broken.
â€“Â schily
Sep 2 at 20:31

1

Use -C : tar -xvjf $1 -C tmp
â€“Â GAD3R
Sep 2 at 20:43

Are you just using tar for compression? If so, don't do that; just use the compression program directly (bzip2 in your case)
â€“Â Fox
Sep 2 at 20:27

@Fox yes, I am. What difference does it make?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 20:28

If your local tar implementation does not create a file named j in your first example, it is broken.
â€“Â schily
Sep 2 at 20:31

Use -C : tar -xvjf $1 -C tmp
â€“Â GAD3R
Sep 2 at 20:43

add a commentÂ |Â

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
7
down vote

accepted

Since you seem to be using tar with bzip2 compression as a way of just compressing a single file, you may want to consider using bzip2 directly:

To compress a file (creates filename.bz2, deletes filename):

bzip2 filename

To decompress a file (creates filename, deletes filename.bz2):

bunzip2 filename.bz2

To compress to a specific filename (creates newfilename.bz2, keeps filename):

bzip2 -c filename >newfilename.bz2

To decompress to a specific filename (creates newfilename, keeps filename.bz2):

bunzip2 -c filename.bz2 >newfilename

See also the manual for bzip2 on your system (man bzip2).

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

1

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

1

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

Here is one solution:

tar -xjOf my.tar > out

This uses the -O option of tar

-O, --to-stdout: extract files to standard output

and redirects standard output to a file called out. If the archive has more than one file, out will be all of the files in the archive concatenated.

You should probably just be using bzip2 directly, as during compression it will not store a file tree. Instead, it will simply store the data within the file.

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

3

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

add a commentÂ |Â

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

up vote
7
down vote

accepted

Since you seem to be using tar with bzip2 compression as a way of just compressing a single file, you may want to consider using bzip2 directly:

To compress a file (creates filename.bz2, deletes filename):

bzip2 filename

To decompress a file (creates filename, deletes filename.bz2):

bunzip2 filename.bz2

To compress to a specific filename (creates newfilename.bz2, keeps filename):

bzip2 -c filename >newfilename.bz2

To decompress to a specific filename (creates newfilename, keeps filename.bz2):

bunzip2 -c filename.bz2 >newfilename

See also the manual for bzip2 on your system (man bzip2).

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

1

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

1

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

accepted

Since you seem to be using tar with bzip2 compression as a way of just compressing a single file, you may want to consider using bzip2 directly:

To compress a file (creates filename.bz2, deletes filename):

bzip2 filename

To decompress a file (creates filename, deletes filename.bz2):

bunzip2 filename.bz2

To compress to a specific filename (creates newfilename.bz2, keeps filename):

bzip2 -c filename >newfilename.bz2

To decompress to a specific filename (creates newfilename, keeps filename.bz2):

bunzip2 -c filename.bz2 >newfilename

See also the manual for bzip2 on your system (man bzip2).

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

1

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

1

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

accepted

Since you seem to be using tar with bzip2 compression as a way of just compressing a single file, you may want to consider using bzip2 directly:

To compress a file (creates filename.bz2, deletes filename):

bzip2 filename

To decompress a file (creates filename, deletes filename.bz2):

bunzip2 filename.bz2

To compress to a specific filename (creates newfilename.bz2, keeps filename):

bzip2 -c filename >newfilename.bz2

To decompress to a specific filename (creates newfilename, keeps filename.bz2):

bunzip2 -c filename.bz2 >newfilename

See also the manual for bzip2 on your system (man bzip2).

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

Since you seem to be using tar with bzip2 compression as a way of just compressing a single file, you may want to consider using bzip2 directly:

To compress a file (creates filename.bz2, deletes filename):

bzip2 filename

To decompress a file (creates filename, deletes filename.bz2):

bunzip2 filename.bz2

To compress to a specific filename (creates newfilename.bz2, keeps filename):

bzip2 -c filename >newfilename.bz2

To decompress to a specific filename (creates newfilename, keeps filename.bz2):

bunzip2 -c filename.bz2 >newfilename

See also the manual for bzip2 on your system (man bzip2).

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

edited Sep 2 at 21:06

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

answered Sep 2 at 20:52

Kusalananda

105k14209326

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

1

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

1

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

add a commentÂ |Â

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

1

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

1

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

I like this solution. However, there is a file that has spaces. How can my bash script handle this? ./decomp "blah blah blah.bz2" gets all messed up. When I used bunzip2 directly, it's all good.
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:47

@SpentDeath Make sure that you double quote the variable expansion in your script.
â€“Â Kusalananda
Sep 2 at 21:52

what does that mean?
â€“Â Spent Death
Sep 2 at 21:59

@SpentDeath That means that rather than $1, you'd use "$1" so that your arguments don't get split
â€“Â Fox
Sep 3 at 0:22

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

Here is one solution:

tar -xjOf my.tar > out

This uses the -O option of tar

-O, --to-stdout: extract files to standard output

and redirects standard output to a file called out. If the archive has more than one file, out will be all of the files in the archive concatenated.

You should probably just be using bzip2 directly, as during compression it will not store a file tree. Instead, it will simply store the data within the file.

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

3

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

Here is one solution:

tar -xjOf my.tar > out

This uses the -O option of tar

-O, --to-stdout: extract files to standard output

and redirects standard output to a file called out. If the archive has more than one file, out will be all of the files in the archive concatenated.

You should probably just be using bzip2 directly, as during compression it will not store a file tree. Instead, it will simply store the data within the file.

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

3

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
7
down vote

Here is one solution:

tar -xjOf my.tar > out

This uses the -O option of tar

-O, --to-stdout: extract files to standard output

and redirects standard output to a file called out. If the archive has more than one file, out will be all of the files in the archive concatenated.

You should probably just be using bzip2 directly, as during compression it will not store a file tree. Instead, it will simply store the data within the file.

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

Here is one solution:

tar -xjOf my.tar > out

This uses the -O option of tar

-O, --to-stdout: extract files to standard output

and redirects standard output to a file called out. If the archive has more than one file, out will be all of the files in the archive concatenated.

You should probably just be using bzip2 directly, as during compression it will not store a file tree. Instead, it will simply store the data within the file.

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

answered Sep 2 at 20:41

Cebtenzzre

711

3

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

add a commentÂ |Â

3

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

Caveat of this approach is you do not preserve metadata like permissions and symlinks.
â€“Â Bob
Sep 3 at 5:07

add a commentÂ |Â

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