todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) (04/21/89)
Hi, I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a different tree structure than they were tarred from. Thus, the tarfile /usr/foo/file should go into the disk pathname /temp/file. I have been unable to find a way to do this -- does anyone know how? I am running SunOS 3.5. I apologize if this is too simple a question. It seems like a simple enough concept, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it. Thanks in advance! Todd Karakashian Internet: todd@cfa205.harvard.edu Bitnet: todd@cfa Phone: (617) 495-7168
mjs@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Spitzer) (04/21/89)
In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu> todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute >pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a >different tree structure than they were tarred from. Thus, the >tarfile /usr/foo/file should go into the disk pathname /temp/file. I >have been unable to find a way to do this -- does anyone know how? > >I am running SunOS 3.5. I apologize if this is too simple a question. Without modifying tar, the easiest was to accomplish this is to use chroot. Lucky for you, SunOS (at least 4.0... I think that 3.? had this too) has a chroot(8) command. Try something like this (you'll have to be root): mkdir /tmp/newroot cp tarfile /tmp/newroot chroot /tmp/newroot tar xf /tarfile If you don't have the chroot program, it's pretty simple to write. See the chroot(2) man page for more information. -- Michael J. Spitzer Purdue University Computing Center mjs@mentor.cc.purdue.edu pur-ee!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mjs
ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) (04/22/89)
In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu>, todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: > I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute > pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a > different tree structure than they were tarred from. Thus, the > tarfile /usr/foo/file should go into the disk pathname /temp/file. I > have been unable to find a way to do this -- does anyone know how? I've encountered the same scnerio and have used this trick: Make a link (symbolic in my instance) in the /usr directory. The link name would be 'foo', and would simply point to /temp. It works quite nicely. -- Ray E. Saddler III | __ __ __ __ | UseNet Boeing Aerospace | / / / // //| // | uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ray3rd P.O. Box 3999 m.s. 3R-05 | /-< / //- // |// _ | PhoneNet Seattle, Wa. 98124 USA | /__//_//__ // //__/ | 1+206-657-2824
Kemp@dockmaster.arpa (04/22/89)
Todd,
I don't know of any good way to restore files from a tar tape that was
created with absolute pathnames, but I do have a couple of bad ways (if
you can become superuser, or get the cooperation of one).
1) If you want to extract only files rooted in a directory that does
not exist on your system, then create a symbolic link to where you want
them to go. For example if you don't currently have /usr/bin/foo, and
you want to restore files /usr/bin/foo/... into /temp/foo/...,
cd /usr/bin
ln -s /temp/foo
Or if /temp/foo is to be in the same partition as /usr/bin/foo, you
could just restore the tape as is, and then
cd /usr/bin
mv foo /temp/foo
2) If /usr/bin/foo already exists and you don't want to mess with it,
or if the tape contains lots of different first level directories, you
could chroot to /tmp, restore the tape, and then mv the files to where
you want them.
DISCLAIMER: I have used method #1, but not #2.
MORAL: **Don't** write tar tapes with absolute pathnames, unless you
are distributing system software.
Dave Kemprg@psgdc (Dick Gill) (04/23/89)
In article <2620@ssc-vax.UUCP> ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) writes: >In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu>, todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >> I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute ... > >Make a link (symbolic in my instance) in the /usr directory. The >link name would be 'foo', and would simply point to /temp. > >It works quite nicely. > This sounds to simple and straightforward to be true. Walk me through this step by step, please. Thanks. -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dick Gill Professional Solutions Group ..uunet!psgdc!rg The quality of the circus here in Washington depends on the clowns you elect.
ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (04/23/89)
In article <2620@ssc-vax.UUCP> ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) writes: >In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu>, todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >> I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute >> pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a >> different tree structure than they were tarred from. Thus, the >> tarfile /usr/foo/file should go into the disk pathname /temp/file. I >> have been unable to find a way to do this -- does anyone know how? My version of GNU tar will do this very simply. It has a -Pnn option where nn is the number of path elements to strip off. Although this program was originally written to make tar archives under MSDOS, it will also run under UNIX. I use it on a Sun for precisely the task you describe. pdtar is available from the author for non-commercial, non-military uses, in SCO Xenix, Ultrix, BSD UNIX, and MSDOS versions. Earl H. Kinmonth History Department University of California, Davis 916-752-1636 (voice, fax [2300-0800 PDT]) 916-752-0776 secretary ucbvax!ucdavis!ucdked!cck
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (04/23/89)
In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu> todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute >pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a >different tree structure than they were tarred from. GNUtar and PAX (both free but not public domain) will do this. GNUtar just strips the leading / if present, PAX lets you do a regex substitution on the pathname. Otherwise you have to set up a fake environment and chroot into it. Les Mikesell
jpr@dasys1.UUCP (Jean-Pierre Radley) (04/28/89)
In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu> todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute >pathnames. What I would like to do is to extract these files into a >different tree structure than they were tarred from. I'm at a slight disadvantage, this site has not got the original message, but: I take it you're running some version of tar which does not have the 'A' option? Stripping leading '/' from a restore is precisely what that option does. -- Jean-Pierre Radley Honi soit jpr@dasys1.UUCP New York, New York qui mal ...!hombre!jpradley!jpr CIS: 76120,1341 y pense ...!hombre!trigere!jpr
ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) (04/28/89)
In article <202@psgdc>, rg@psgdc (Dick Gill) writes: > In article <2620@ssc-vax.UUCP> ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) writes: > >In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu>, todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: > >> I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute > ... > > > >Make a link (symbolic in my instance) in the /usr directory. The > >link name would be 'foo', and would simply point to /temp. > > > >It works quite nicely. > > > This sounds to simple and straightforward to be true. Walk me > through this step by step, please. > > Thanks. First of all, we are concerned with remapping absolute pathnames in a 'tar' file (be it tape or diskfile) to a filesystem. The slight of hand is in creating a false pathname in the filesystem which will redirect the directory names in the tar image as they are extracted to disk. For the sake of example, my home directory on our VAX is /user4/ray3rd, but on my workstation, the home directory is /usr/user/ray. If I create a tar file on the VAX, I'll need to create a bogus /user4/ray3rd on my workstation if I want to extract the files directly onto my home directory. Sample VAX tarfile: rwxr-xr-x1221/737 0 Jun 29 09:09 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/ rw-r--r--1221/737 96 Jun 29 09:08 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/Makefile rw-r--r--1221/737 1401 Jun 29 09:08 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/block.c rw-r--r--1221/737 17112 Jun 29 09:08 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/data.c Now I go to my workstation and: cs2860 ray> su root Password: cs2860 ray> mkdir /user4 cs2860 ray> ln -s /usr/user/ray /user4/ray3rd cs2860 ray> chown ray /user4/ray3rd cs2860 ray> ls -al /user4 total 3 drwxrwxrwx 2 root 512 Apr 27 09:57 . drwxr-xr-x 16 root 1024 Apr 27 09:53 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 ray 13 Apr 27 09:57 ray3rd -> /usr/user/ray cs2860 ray> cd /user4/ray3rd cs2860 ray> pwd /usr/user/ray cs2860 ray> tar -xvf /tmp/sampletar x /user4/ray3rd/block/Makefile, 96 bytes, 1 tape blocks x /user4/ray3rd/block/block.c, 1401 bytes, 3 tape blocks x /user4/ray3rd/block/data.c, 17112 bytes, 34 tape blocks cs2860 ray> ls -al /user4/ray3rd/block/* /usr/user/ray/block/* -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 96 Jun 29 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/Makefile -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 1401 Jun 29 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/block.c -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 17112 Jun 29 1988 /user4/ray3rd/block/data.c -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 96 Jun 29 1988 /usr/user/ray/block/Makefile -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 1401 Jun 29 1988 /usr/user/ray/block/block.c -rw-r--r-- 1 1221 17112 Jun 29 1988 /usr/user/ray/block/data.c And there we have it. The next step would be to CHange OWNership of the new files to 'ray' since I have different UID's on each system. Simple, eh? [Sorry to use so much bandwidth, but it seemed convenient to followup rather than directly mail to him!] -- Ray E. Saddler III | __ __ __ __ | UseNet Boeing Aerospace | / / / // //| // | uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ray3rd P.O. Box 3999 m.s. 3R-05 | /-< / //- // |// _ | PhoneNet Seattle, Wa. 98124 USA | /__//_//__ // //__/ | 1+206-657-2824
ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (04/28/89)
The simplest solution to this is to get a copy of pdtar from me. pdtar has several options to change file names. -A simply removes the first "/" to give a relative path name. -Pnn allows specifying how many "/dir" elements are to be removed. pdtar runs under SCO Xenix, MSDOS, 2.9-4.3 UNIX, etc. Disclaimer: Programming is too important to leave to programmers! Earl H. Kinmonth History Department University of California, Davis 916-752-1636 (voice, fax [2300-0800 PDT]) 916-752-0776 secretary ucbvax!ucdavis!ucdked!cck
ric@Apple.COM (Ric Urrutia) (04/29/89)
In article <202@psgdc> rg@psgdc.UUCP (Dick Gill) writes: >In article <2620@ssc-vax.UUCP> ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E Saddler III) writes: >>In article <1501@cfa205.cfa250.harvard.edu>, todd@cfa250.harvard.edu (Todd Karakashian) writes: >>> I am in posession of tapes containing tarfiles with absolute >... >> >>Make a link (symbolic in my instance) in the /usr directory. The >>link name would be 'foo', and would simply point to /temp. >> >>It works quite nicely. >> >This sounds to simple and straightforward to be true. Walk me The way that I do is is by using chroot(1m) to change my root directory for the tar command. For example: If I have a tar tape with absolute pathnames and wish to read them into a new directory, I can do the following: mkdir /new cp /bin/sh /new cp /usr/bin/tar /new chroot /new sh (invoke sh and make /new the new root) tar xvf ???? exit the temporary shell by hitting ctrl/d (this puts you back to normal) rename your directory