Bash – Tar compress folder without specifying the filename

bashcommand linetar

Is it possible to use tar to compress a folder without giving the filename of the archive to store in?

Normally you use:

tar -zcvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz /home/jerry/prog

I want to do something like

tar -zcvf /home/jerry/prog

and have it create prog.tar.gz

Best Answer

You can't use tar this way. Or you need to patch it.

If you don't give a file (you don't use the -f option), tar will use the standard output by default, i.e. the terminal and eventually fail because it will refuse to write compressed data on the terminal.

So, you have to call tar the proper way : tar -zcvf prog.tag.gz /home/jerry/prog.

Related Solutions

Compress a tar file without extracting the content

Compressing a tar file with gzip, bzip2 or xz after it is created without compression, is the same tarring + compressing the original data with tar + the z, j, resp. J option.

Tar – Creating Archive Without Including Parent Directory

You can use the -C option of tar to accomplish this:

tar -C /home/username/dir1/dir2 -cvf temp.tar selecteddir

From the man page of tar:

-C directory
         In c and r mode, this changes the directory before adding the following files.  
         In x mode, change directories after opening the archive but before extracting 
         entries from the archive.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Compress a tar file without extracting the content

Tar – Creating Archive Without Including Parent Directory

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