help with .tar.gz

i unziped the following file

tmp/tmpdir/letters.tar.gz

using tar xvf letters.tar , but i can't find the files after theyve been uncompressed.... any suggestins

you cannot unzip a file using tar !
1) mk a new dir and cd to it, you never know what you is in the
file, cp the file here: g.e: mkdir aaaa; cd aaaa; cp ../fileXX .
2) unzip the file, the cmd: file filename
show you wich cmd is to use (.gz can be a zipped file)
unzip xxx.tar.gz give you a xxx.tar file
3) untar the unzipped file
a) first loock what kind of files are in, using
tar tfv xxx.tar
b) if ok (i hope they are NOT absolute path)
extrac the files using
tar xfv xxx.tar
this give you a xxx directory or a lot of files

-Steven

which OS && tar ?

see, those are the questions (-in answer to questions) that get asked too often. Someone wishes to know a certain something and firmly believes that others on a forum have telepathic powers at their disposal. Either that or they believe that their little unix and userland cosmos are the only possible constellation. That coupled with an obstinate refusal to read any form of documentation on tools like 'tar' before wildly wielding them about in the adamant supposition that it must function as they presume (read guess), leads to terribly long and drawn out Q&A sessions. Don't get me wrong, I am all for intuitive software, but in this case, where we can be fairly certain that the download site of letter.tar.gz explained how to extract the files (and more importantly how to run checksum to ensure that they are not corrupt after transfer) it becomes very difficult to remain objective.

Therefore, considering this, perhaps you will understand my reaction to the original post: "SPLAT" there is "an answer", in the same manner as the question was "SPLAT" posted!!

I found your answer very detailed and containing many important points, the questions are: was it appreciated? were those points understood?

apropos: there are rootkits around for certain versions of 'file' (at least for FreeBSD), so make sure you are using a current version (I think version 4 is ok).

-Steven

stevengs
can you accept it:
- my (solaris) tar does NOT support the 'z' opt
- i newer saw a 'tar z'
- i cannot install||use an exotic tar (company policy)
thank you

Dear Mr. Guggach,

I did not mean to invalidate your question regarding the os and versions. The question was absolutely necessary. The fact is, it should not be necessary but we seem to have to ask it all too often. Everyone seems to disregard the newbie stickys explaining how to post a question in a sensible manner, that these questions become dispensible as they have already been answered. I use Solaris myself occasionally, so I understand that the -z will not work with the native tools. The probability that the -z will not work for kwik222 is also relatively high, which might possibly cause him to consider for a moment, that his unix universe is only one of many possible ones. His next thread might, in light of this, contain a little more background. That will save you (us) a lot of footwork. Instead of a long arduous post, covering and explaining all the possibilities, you (we) could answer with a smart one-liner.


I know you can't use it, but just for the record:


The same can be achieved with other means, a pipe, or, as you suggested, simply by decompressing it first, etc.


-Steven

GNU software is available for Sun - check the www.gnu.org site.

yes, but he mentioned that the company policy forbids adding software at will:


gnu isn't considered exotic in my book, but I reckon others feel differently about it, which is fine. It probably saves the hassles involved when everyone wants to install their personal favourite tools.


-Steven

So im still not getting what i want::

I copied this contents of /tmp/tmpdir/letters.tar.gz to a subdirectory in your home
directory but i can't get to uncompress to find the contents of this file ??

well, since you can't use the "file" program to figure out what type of compression was used, try gzip:



that should leave the file looking like this:

letter.tar

(if not, try gunzip.)


then run tar on the file:



afterwards, I'd recommend reading the first few pargraphs of manpages of these tools so you have an idea of what they are actually doing. Blindly following directions is not going to help you later... and unpacking a tar'd and gzip'd file is actually among the simplest of tasks. Learning how to use and understand the manpages on the other hand is of key importance in unix.



-Steven

Got it Thanks