Tar cannot open its own creation

[minthaka]

Although I saw that the command:
tar -xf mytar.tar
should open and extract the archive which is situated in the same folder I'm issuing the command, in Kubuntu 9.10 I'm getting errors
tar: mytar.tar: the following function failed: open: No such file or folder

What's wrong with all this Linux stuff?

[coopstah13]

does it actually exist in the directory you are running the command from? these utilities are very old and long stable, they wouldn't have bugs like this

[minthaka]

Yes, it does. It opens with right-click in Ark.
I've created it with command:
tar -cf /home/user/mytar.tar -C /home/user/.myfolder ./mydoc.txt ./mysubfolder
That way I got a mytar.tar archive in my home folder, and it contains mydoc.txt and mysubfolder of .myfolder, with all its contents. Of course, it doesn't contains the relative paths /home/...
but that's the thing I wanted to have with zip, and couldn't.

[giammy]

hi,

try:
tar -xf /home/user/mytar.tar

bye
giammy

[proopnarine]

Yes, the problem is a path problem, not a tar problem. As coopstah stated, tar is very unlikely to have any operational bugs in it. Your file is either not in the directory from which you are issuing the command, or there is something screwy with the local path. If giammy's solution didn't work, try
tar -xf ./mytar.tar, assuming of course that you indeed are in the directory housing mytar.tar.

[jlumpkins]

I would suggest that there is either a hidden character in your file name, or there is another reason that the file name you are typing does not match the name of the tar file you are trying to open. Normally, if I find something like that happening with one command, I try another.

Here is what I would try:

1. insure that you are in the directory you think you are in by typing the command 'pwd' (no single quotes).

2. If you are in the correct directory, then type 'ls -lF', (no single quotes), and see that the file you are looking for actually exists in the directory you are in.

3. If the file appears to be there with the name you think it has, then type 'ls -lF [filename]'. My guess is that if tar couldn't find your file, neither will ls, and your problem is in all probability that you: a) aren't in the correct directory, b) the file has a different name that what you think it has, c) what ever user you are logged in as in the terminal session doesn't have read priviledges to the file.

Why do I think this is the case? Well, I've used that command thousands of times on a variety of *nix systems, and any time it didn't work as documented, it was my fault. So, when things like that happen, my advice to you is to first of all, take a deep breath, assume that you're doing something silly -- we all do, and look for the obvious.

I sincerely hope you have the opportunity to experience the pleasure that one can get from the power of the *nix command line. After years of using it, it's rare that I would actually use a gui to do things that are so much faster, and more flexible on the command line.

Take care,

Jerry Lumpkins