Linux – tar –files-from complains “Cannot stat: No such file or directory”

linuxstattar

When I type:

tar -cvf ~/changeset.tar --files-from ~/changeset.txt

it responds with this output:

tar:  admin/memberinformation.php            : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/clsPreferredAgencies.php      : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/clsPreferredAgencies_test.php : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/clscustomer.php               : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/clsfeedback.php               : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/clsleads.php                  : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  business/connection.php                : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  crons/daily_activity.php               : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  crons/not_closed_orders2.php           : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  crons/unaccepted_orders2.php           : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  js/jquery-1.4.2.js                     : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  sql/alter-project.sql                  : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  sql/buyerName.php                      : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  sql/preferredAgencies.sql              : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  sql/underwriters_list.sql              : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/close_selectedporject.php         : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/feedback.php                      : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/forum.php                         : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/initiatelead.php                  : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/leadprocess_detail.php            : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/mem_direc.php                     : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/qws.php                           : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/view_leaddetails.php              : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/viewfeedbackforusers.php          : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar:  user/viewfeedbacks.php                 : Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
lsiden@lsiden2:~/titan$ ls admin/memberinformation.php 
admin/memberinformation.php

Here are the contents of ~/changeset.txt. In other words, a bunch of relative paths. As a sanity check:

$ ls admin/memberinformation.php 
admin/memberinformation.php

Why can't tar find any of these files even though they are clearly reachable from the current directory with the relative paths given?

FYI:

$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1

Best Answer

You have an extra space at the beginning of each line in changeset.txt.

EDIT: Also, did you by any chance create changeset.txt on a Windows machine? If so, there may be an extra ^M character at the end of each line. Most unix programs will consider this character to be part of the line (here, part of the file name), whereas Windows considers the ^M part of the newline sequence. You can see whether this is the case by running cat -A changeset.txt: normally there should just be a $ at the end of each line; if you see ^M$, you have a Windows file. The dos2unix command is often available to convert the line endings.

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