Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!killer!wnp
From: wnp@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: tar help
Message-ID: <8507@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 1 Jul 89 10:31:45 GMT
References: <1731@cmx.npac.syr.edu>
Reply-To: wnp@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Wolf Paul)
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection BBS, Dallas, Tx
Lines: 21

In article <1731@cmx.npac.syr.edu> gefuchs@logiclab.cis.syr.edu (Gill E. Fuchs) writes:
 >suppose i want to tar an entire accound into a tar file named
 >GUGU.tar
 >
 >then i type (at the ~ directory)
 >	tar cvf GUGU.tar .
 >
 >but after sometime tar tars GUGU.tar recorsively upon itself,
 >now i have tried all kinds of combinations with the X option for
 >tar but to no avail, i guess i cannot milk the correct command out of
 >the man pages

Note Maarten Litmath's follow-up for correct 'X' option syntax.

If all else fails, i.e. if using the 'X' option doesn't work with your
version of tar, try this:

	tar cvf /tmp/GUGU.tar .

or wherever you (a) can find some space and (b) have write permission.
You can still 'mv' the tar file back into GUGU's $HOME afterwards.