Re: tar problem

On Sun, 09 Jun 2024 14:36:49 +0000, db wrote:

I like to make life easy so I wrote a one-line script
for extracting the contents of a tar file. I copied it
into the /bin directory so I can run it from anywhere.
I tried it out in a test directory where I had it, and
where there is a small test tar file. Here is the dialogue
from running it, using  both the local script and the one
in /bin:
 
~/tartest> ls
tarx  test.tar.gz
~/tartest> cat tarx
tar -xf $1.tar.gz
~/tartest> cat ~/bin/tarx
tar -xf $1.tar.gz
~/tartest> ./tarx test
~/tartest> ls
tarx  test  test.tar.gz
~/tartest> del -r test

Is this a homegrown command, or does your distribution supply it?
FWIW, "del" is not a standard Unix or Linux command, and (AFAIK)
does not exist as a builtin in any Unix/Linux shell.

~/tartest> tarx test
tar (child): test: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

The error message implies that
a) tar can't find an input file called "test", and
b) that your tarx command doesn't expand it's argument
   into a filename that tar /can/ find.

Why doesn't it work from bin/ ?

What shell do you use?
Do you have an alias set for tar or tarx?

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills We Trust"