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I am new to Ubuntu (terminal especially) and I am experimenting with the tar command.

I have created a /test folder containing one single /test.txt file at /var/www/html/test/test.txt.

I would like to tar only the /test folder (and its contents) to /home/jo/backup.

My process so far is as follows:

cd ~ 
tar cvf testBackup.tar /var/www/html/test/ 

This successfully creates a testBackup.tar located at /home/jo/backup. However when I extract the tar using the following command:

tar cvf testBackup.tar /var/www/html/test/

The folder var is visible, and I have to cd to the /test directory (/var/www/html/test) in order to see the contents.

Basically I only want to tar the test folder, not the three before (/var/www/html)

Am I doing something wrong or is this how the command works?

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  • 1
    use cd /var/www/html/;tar cvf testBackup.tar ./test;mv testBackup.tar ~/backup/ Oct 19, 2015 at 14:36
  • thanks @LittleByBlue can you briefly explain what this is doing? Or what I am doing wrong? :)
    – jonboy
    Oct 19, 2015 at 14:37
  • you need to go to the directory above test. see also: man tar I'll make an answer Oct 19, 2015 at 14:38

3 Answers 3

4

go to the location and run the command

cd /var/www/html
tar cvf /home/jo/backup/testBackup.tar test
2

As tar is designed for backups,too

you may specify the least distant path. In your case it is test.

So you can use this chain:

cd /var/www/html;tar cvf testBackup.tar ./test;mv testBackup.tar ~/backup/


cd /var/www/html;tar cvf testBackup.tar ./test;rsync  testBackup.tar ~/backup/;rm testBackup.tar # for cross net compability

which will tar only your test folder and move it to your backup directory.

See also:

man tar
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  • this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you for the explanation.
    – jonboy
    Oct 19, 2015 at 14:42
  • Why do you use the mv command? You could specify the correct target directly...
    – Byte Commander
    Oct 19, 2015 at 14:43
  • @ByteCommander as it is more extensible (eg using rsync) Oct 19, 2015 at 14:50
1

Typically I go to the directory first, then execute the tar command. This way, we do the dancing up front and allow easy what-you-want extract in the end:

cd /var/www/html
tar cvf ~/testBackup.tar test

The tar command probably has options that allow the same thing without the dancing, just read the man page (man tar).

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