Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rphroy!hobbes.cs.gmr.com!tkacik
From: tkacik@hobbes.cs.gmr.com (Tom Tkacik CS/50)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: TAR on 3b1
Keywords: tar
Message-ID: <57141@rphroy.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jun 91 12:57:18 GMT
References: <136@morwyn.UUCP>
Sender: news@rphroy.UUCP
Reply-To: tkacik@hobbes.cs.gmr.com (Tom Tkacik CS/50)
Organization: G.M. Research Labs, Warren, MI
Lines: 36
Nntp-Posting-Host: hobbes.cs.gmr.com

In article <136@morwyn.UUCP>, forrie@morwyn.UUCP (Forrie Aldrich) writes:
|> I have the development set 3.51 installed... in many messages and so 
|> forth on the net, I have seen the tar command invoked as:
|> 
|> 	zcat file.tar.Z | tar xvf -
|> 
|> whereby it doesn't require you to uncompress the file first before 
|> extracting it's contents.  Well, after many trials, I cannot seem 
|> to get the 3b1 tar command to cooperate with this approach, and I 
|> wonder if anyone out there has a solution to this issue.

The tar on the 3b1 (like all SYSV tar's) does not make you owner of
the files by default.  To do this you must include -o:

	zcat file.tar.Z | tar xvof -

This always works for me.  Otherwise tar creates the directory but will
not unpack any of the files because you do not own the directory, and
you do not have write permission into the directory.

|> It's a real pain to have to uncompress LARGE files first in order
|> to extract the contents...  if you know what I mean.

Do you mean that:

	uncompress file.tar.Z
	tar xvf file.tar

does work?  The above will not fix it then.  I have never seen this work
if the above did not also work.  What error message is tar giving you?

--
Tom Tkacik
GM Research Labs
tkacik@hobbes.cs.gmr.com
tkacik@kyzyl.mi.org