Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!netcomsv!zap
From: zap@netcom.COM (Paul Eastham)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Trouble with untarring (was:Re: cnews/wnews/rn)
Message-ID: <1991Jun24.235132.22278@netcom.COM>
Date: 24 Jun 91 23:51:32 GMT
References: <1991Jun23.020348.20525@skypod.guild.org>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 33

In article <1991Jun23.020348.20525@skypod.guild.org> marc@skypod.guild.org (Marc Fournier) writes:
>Hi Folks...
>
>	We just got ahold of Coherent 3.2 from MWC.  We got
>a feed working perfectly for mail, but I want to extend it to
>news also.  I logged onto piggy.ucsb.edu and tried to transfer
>cnews.tar.Z and wnews.tar.Z but as soon as I got it onto my
>computer, and uncompressed it and tried to untar it, it screwed
>up.  The uncompressing worked no problem, but as soon as I untared
>it, it really screwed up the file system.  All the files contained
>the same thing and seemed to be links to the directory.  I don't
>know what happened, since I've used tar many times before hand.
>
...

I've had the exact same problems with all kinds of tar files, in version 3.1
of coherent.  It created all directories instead of files, and if you "cd" to
any of the directories, you wind up going nowhere.  At first I couldn't delete
them but I rediscovered the "rm -f" command, which thrashes all files/
directories in the parameter regardless of safeguards.  if you try a "rmdir",
it'll tell you something like "you can't delete the directory you are currently
in."  
I've resigned myself to downloading the files from piggy to my public access
Unix system, untarring them there, then downloading them.

I too would love hearing why it does this.
-- 
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| ---- |  ZAP!!
|   /  |  A.K.A. Paul Eastham 
| /_   |  zap@netcom.com 
|  /   |  Los Altos, CA
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