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Creating an Archive from the Superior Directory

(This message will disappear, once this node revised.)

You can archive a directory by specifying its directory name as a file name argument to tar. The files in the directory will be archived relative to the working directory, and the directory will be re-created along with its contents when the archive is extracted.

To archive a directory, first move to its superior directory. If you have been following the tutorial, you should type:

% cd ..
%

Once in the superior directory, you can specify the subdirectory as a file name argument. To store the directory `practice' in the archive file `music', type:

% tar --create --verbose --file=music practice

tar should output:

practice/
practice/blues
practice/folk
practice/jazz
practice/records

Note that the archive thus created is not in the subdirectory `practice', but rather in the working directory--the directory from which tar was invoked. Before trying to archive a directory from its superior directory, you should make sure you have write access to the superior directory itself, not only the directory you are trying archive with tar. Trying to store your home directory in an archive by invoking tar from the root directory will probably not work.

FIXME: xref absolute-names

You can store a directory in an archive by using the directory name as a file name argument to tar. When you specify a directory file, tar archives the directory file and all the files it contains. The names of the directory and the files it contains are stored in the archive relative to the current working directory--when the directory is extracted they will be written into the file system relative to the working directory at that time.

FIXME: add an xref to --absolute-names

To archive a directory, first move to its superior directory. If you have been following the tutorial, you should type:

% cd ..
%

Once in the superior directory, specify the subdirectory using a file name argument. To store the directory file `~/practice' in the archive file `music', type:

% tar --create --verbose --file=music practice

tar should respond:

practice/
practice/blues
practice/folk
practice/jazz
practice/records

Note that `~/practice/records', another archive file, has itself been archived. tar will accept any file as a file to be archived, even an archive file.

FIXME: symbolic links and changing directories are now in main body,
FIXME: not in tutorial.

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