🚀 go-pugleaf

philh@vision25.demon.co.uk (phil hunt) writes:

> This is not as stupid a question as it sounds. I know the 'tar'
> command, and I know that for example:
>    tar czvf parrot-0.2.5.tgz parrot-0.2.5/
> will create a file 'parrot-0.2.5.tgz' which when untarred will
> put its contents in a subdirectory called 'parrot-0.2.5'.

Er, ITYM it'll tar+gzip the contents of parrot-0.2.5/ into the tarball
parrot-0.2.5.tgz. Close. :)

> The way i do this is that first I create a directory parrot-0.2.5/ which
> contains evereything I want to include from the parrot/ directory to go
> into the tarball. This is potentially error-prone, especially as it is a
> routine (& therefore boring) administrative task. Then I execute the tar
> command above.

It's a question of directory paths. If you want the contents of the tar
archive to be 
	blah-0.2
	blah-0.2/Minutes.doc
	blah-0.2/cd_b4.tar.gz
	blah-0.2/somefile.txt

then you must be in a directory containing blah-0.2/ underneath it; the
alternatives are either full directory paths (EVIL! [1]) or no directories
at all (  cd blah-0.2 ; tar cvzf ../blah-0.2.tar.gz * )  according to taste.

> Is there an easier way?

   -1) that IS easy!  ;8^]
    0) not really unless you do something graphically eg with kfm / whatever
    1) you are using tab-completion, aren't you?
    2) are you only copying certain files across from parrot/ each time? if
       so, why not live under parrot-0.2.5/ in the first place?
    3) can you automate the list of files you move across? If so, stick it
       in a shell script
    4) can you generate a list of files by a set of rules, eg "isn't a .o
       file and was modified in the last 4 days"? If so, use find like
       this:
	find parrot/ -mtime -4 ! -name \*.o -exec cp {} parrot-0.2.5/ \;

    5) if you want to create a tarball of a load of things under a
       directory where there's a similar set of rules for things to
       include/exclude, consider this:
	find parrot-0.2.5/ -mtime -4 ! -name \*.o | cpio -H tar -ov | \
	     gzip -9c > parrot-0.2.5.tar.gz
       it's cute and it works wonders... ;)

[1] I don't think you want a /mnt/reiserfs/piglet/stuff/blah-0.2/
directory, do you? ;)

~Tim
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