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tar version |
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|
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#################################################### |
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tar (GNU tar) 1.34 |
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Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
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License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. |
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This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. |
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There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. |
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|
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Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason. |
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#################################################### |
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|
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I'm passing on this solution to help others avoid my frustration and |
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wasted time. If you've done "RTFM" on tar, you'll find out that "TFM" |
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is broken or out-of-date or whatever, re: "--exclude=PATTERN". I'm |
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fighting the urge to turn this into a rant. Here's my situation... |
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|
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I either log in as root or "su -" and then "cd /home". I want to tar |
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up /home/waltdnes, and transfer it to another machine. While I'm at it, |
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I want to exlude directory /home/waltdnes/.cache/ and all *.xz files in |
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directory /home/waltdnes/pm/ The "--exclude=" never worked. After much |
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hair pulling, I was ready to give up on the exclude, and simply transfer |
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all the unnecessary garbage. |
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|
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Then "I asked Mr. Google". It seems that I wasn't the only person |
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running into problems. After some searching, I finally found a syntax |
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that works... |
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|
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#################################################### |
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#!/bin/bash |
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export GZIP=-9 |
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tar cvzf wd.tgz --exclude ".cache/*" --exclude "pm/*.xz" waltdnes |
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#################################################### |
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|
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Notes... |
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|
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1) This is obviously not in line with the man page. Specifically, |
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"--exclude" is followed by one space, not an equals sign. |
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|
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2) ***THERE MUST BE EXACTLY ONE SPACE BETWEEN EACH WORD*** |
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|
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3) All directories and/or files to exclude must be listed as relative |
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paths to the directory being tarred, i.e. last parameter on the command |
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line. |
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|
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4) I don't know the maximum line-length, which would limit the number of |
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--exclude entries. In those cases, I wonder if "--exclude-from=FILE" |
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works as "--exclude-from FILE". |
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|
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-- |
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Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> |
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I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications |
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