"tar:" ???

[Lordshooter]

Hello.

Does the following mean, that it is not untared, not decompressed?
Or why is "tar:" in front of "/home/..."?

tar:/home/alexander/Desktop/hp3900-sane1018_src_0.7.tar.gz/

But all folders and files are displayed, and I can read and write them...

Thank you.

[devils casper]

Which command did you execute? Post command and its exact output here.

[Lordshooter]

Hello Casper.

I did not give in a command.

I only clicked onto the icon of the downloaded and opened driver, which is in my desktop files.

Edit:

To be more spcecific/precise:
I downloaded my data packages on my desktop, then I opened them and put them into my directory where my desktop is.
/home/alexander/Desktop/

I think, it is when I click onto the desktop icon of the files, that I get to see the path:

tar:/home/alexander/Desktop/hp3900-sane1018_src_0.7.tar.gz/

And it is "tar:" that irritates and confuses me. But actually I have all of the filles on one place, so that I can read and write and execute the files.

[RobinVossen]

I dont know how it works with GUI.
But if you go to a terminal and do:

cd /home/alexander/Desktop
tar xvf hp3900-sane1018_src_0.7.tar.gz

you extracted everything

[Lordshooter]

Thank you very much, dear Robin, for your kind and helpful response, with your useful command.

- I mostley use the tool "Ark" to look at downloaded software packages (as drivers, etc.), and to open them (what I understand is, doing the same thing as unpacking them to a folder in the directory...). I think: Often "Ark" appears/shows up automatically, once a package is downloaded onto my desktop. Then I just click on the icon of the downloaded package, and there she is: "Ark", and I can see the directory of the files, which are the content of the package. I can move the content to a other folder, within my own directory. Wherever I think, it is positioned best. But up and till now, I dumped quite a lot in my desktop folder, just because I could not think of anything better. I could not think of a better place. But it is getting quite stuffed up, now.

- So I supose, I got my packages by that method extracted/unpacked, up and till now.

- But it looks like, your method, by typing that command into the Run Command line, is a good method as well, and probably easier to do it properly, so that you have full control over what you are doing, and can surely put it int the right place in your directory.

.... - And oh!: I suppose, "cd" would mean something like: "copy into directory", I guess. But I can look it up after, in Wiki / Wikipedia.

It will be always good to be familiar with as many of those expressions as possible, to save time, and to be able to proceed with things within reasonable time.
Because one wants to also enjoy, or work, or do both, work and enjoy, with the computer, and not have to fiddle around longer than necessary, with the settings and configurations. It is nice, when it works, whatever should get to be working.

Thank you, again.

Kind regards,
Alexander

[RobinVossen]

cd is change directory
tar is the tarring program
xvf -> x extract v verbose and f.. well I forgot

[budman7]

f=file

"man" is such a useful command.
man tar
man cd

[hazel]

- But it looks like, your method, by typing that command into the Run Command line, is a good method as well, and probably easier to do it properly, so that you have full control over what you are doing, and can surely put it int the right place in your directory.

So you've discovered that it's often quicker to use the command line. Excellent!

[RobinVossen]

Well, almost everything goes Quicker in CommandLine.
But nearly everything is easyer in GUI.

Well, in my eyes every newbie shouldnt start with a Distro like Fedora/Suse/Ubuntu/pclinuxOS/Mandriva

Since they dont really require CommandLine Skills.

[scm]

I dont know how it works with GUI.
But if you go to a terminal and do:

cd /home/alexander/Desktop
tar xvf hp3900-sane1018_src_0.7.tar.gz

you extracted everything

Don't you need a z flag to tell tar to unzip it, too?