[gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking for. 
It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were trying to
rescue myself.

How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
done that way for the stage 3 tarball.

Thanks

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Nikos Chantziaras]

Dale wrote:
> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking for. 
> It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were trying to
> rescue myself.
> 
> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.

You strip the leading directory during extraction using the "--strip=1" 
option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will ignore 
"gentoo/" during extraction.)

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> Dale wrote:
>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking
>> for. It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were
>> trying to
>> rescue myself.
>>
>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>
> You strip the leading directory during extraction using the
> "--strip=1" option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will
> ignore "gentoo/" during extraction.)
>
>
>

OK.  That makes sense, sort of.  How do the people that make the stage3
tarball do it?  When I extract a stage3 tarball, it doesn't have
/mnt/gentoo on it at all.  Are they using a "dedicated" install to build
those tarballs on?

Also, since I want it to ignore /mnt/gentoo, wouldn't I have to use
--strip=2 to remove both /mnt and the /gentoo after that?  Just trying
to make sure I understand this correctly.

I would like to do this on the creating part if possible.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Nikos Chantziaras]

Dale wrote:
> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> Dale wrote:
>>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
>>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
>>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
>>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking
>>> for. It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were
>>> trying to
>>> rescue myself.
>>>
>>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
>>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>> You strip the leading directory during extraction using the
>> "--strip=1" option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will
>> ignore "gentoo/" during extraction.)
>>
>>
>>
> 
> OK.  That makes sense, sort of.  How do the people that make the stage3
> tarball do it?  When I extract a stage3 tarball, it doesn't have
> /mnt/gentoo on it at all.  Are they using a "dedicated" install to build
> those tarballs on?
> 
> Also, since I want it to ignore /mnt/gentoo, wouldn't I have to use
> --strip=2 to remove both /mnt and the /gentoo after that?  Just trying
> to make sure I understand this correctly.
> 
> I would like to do this on the creating part if possible.

To do this on creation, you can do use "-C /mnt/gentoo ." as options 
(translate: package the current directory of /mnt/gentoo).  The 
top-level directory of the tarball will then be "./".

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> Dale wrote:
>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>> Dale wrote:
>>>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>>>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>>>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>>>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
>>>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4
>>>> tarball, it
>>>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could
>>>> update
>>>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>>>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking
>>>> for. It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were
>>>> trying to
>>>> rescue myself.
>>>>
>>>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>>>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page
>>>> but
>>>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>>>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>>> You strip the leading directory during extraction using the
>>> "--strip=1" option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will
>>> ignore "gentoo/" during extraction.)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> OK.  That makes sense, sort of.  How do the people that make the stage3
>> tarball do it?  When I extract a stage3 tarball, it doesn't have
>> /mnt/gentoo on it at all.  Are they using a "dedicated" install to build
>> those tarballs on?
>>
>> Also, since I want it to ignore /mnt/gentoo, wouldn't I have to use
>> --strip=2 to remove both /mnt and the /gentoo after that?  Just trying
>> to make sure I understand this correctly.
>>
>> I would like to do this on the creating part if possible.
>
> To do this on creation, you can do use "-C /mnt/gentoo ." as options
> (translate: package the current directory of /mnt/gentoo).  The
> top-level directory of the tarball will then be "./".
>
>
>

I tried this but it didn't like it very much:

root@smoker / # tar -cjfvp /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2 -C
/mnt/gentoo/
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
tar: /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2: Cannot stat: No such
file or directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
root@smoker / #

I also tried reversing the thing, thought maybe I had it backwards, but
it didn't like that either.  Maybe I'm getting to old for learning new
tricks.  LOL

Where am I wrong here?

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Nikos Chantziaras]

Dale wrote:
> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> Dale wrote:
>>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>>> Dale wrote:
>>>>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>>>>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>>>>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>>>>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
>>>>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4
>>>>> tarball, it
>>>>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could
>>>>> update
>>>>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>>>>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking
>>>>> for. It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were
>>>>> trying to
>>>>> rescue myself.
>>>>>
>>>>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>>>>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page
>>>>> but
>>>>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>>>>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>>>> You strip the leading directory during extraction using the
>>>> "--strip=1" option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will
>>>> ignore "gentoo/" during extraction.)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> OK.  That makes sense, sort of.  How do the people that make the stage3
>>> tarball do it?  When I extract a stage3 tarball, it doesn't have
>>> /mnt/gentoo on it at all.  Are they using a "dedicated" install to build
>>> those tarballs on?
>>>
>>> Also, since I want it to ignore /mnt/gentoo, wouldn't I have to use
>>> --strip=2 to remove both /mnt and the /gentoo after that?  Just trying
>>> to make sure I understand this correctly.
>>>
>>> I would like to do this on the creating part if possible.
>> To do this on creation, you can do use "-C /mnt/gentoo ." as options
>> (translate: package the current directory of /mnt/gentoo).  The
>> top-level directory of the tarball will then be "./".
>>
>>
>>
> 
> I tried this but it didn't like it very much:
> 
> root@smoker / # tar -cjfvp /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2 -C
> /mnt/gentoo/
> tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
> tar: /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2: Cannot stat: No such
> file or directory
> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
> root@smoker / #
> 
> I also tried reversing the thing, thought maybe I had it backwards, but
> it didn't like that either.  Maybe I'm getting to old for learning new
> tricks.  LOL
> 
> Where am I wrong here?

1) Better use -cjvpf  ("f") takes an argument (the filename of that tar 
to be crated) so it must be at the end.

2) You are forgetting the dot (= current directory) at the end of the 
command:

tar -cjpf /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo .

[gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Nikos Chantziaras]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> 1) Better use -cjvpf  ("f") takes an argument (the filename of that tar 
> to be crated) so it must be at the end.

That's why I usually use "tar -cjvp -f blabla.tar.bz2".  I always 
seperate options that take an argument from the rest.  But -cjvpf works 
too as long as "f" is at the end.  This means that if you combine many 
options after a single "-", only one one of them is allowed to take an 
argument; the last one.

It might also be easier for you to use long options instead of short 
ones (easier to read).  This:

   -cjvpf -C

Is equivalent to:

   --create --bzip2 --verbose --preserve-permissions --file --directory

So the original example becomes:

tar --create --bzip2 --verbose --preserve-permissions --file 
/data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.tar.bz2 --directory /mnt/gentoo .

Which might be longer to write but perhaps easier to understand :P

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Joerg Schilling]

Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de> wrote:

> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> > 1) Better use -cjvpf  ("f") takes an argument (the filename of that tar 
> > to be crated) so it must be at the end.
>
> That's why I usually use "tar -cjvp -f blabla.tar.bz2".  I always 
> seperate options that take an argument from the rest.  But -cjvpf works 
> too as long as "f" is at the end.  This means that if you combine many 
> options after a single "-", only one one of them is allowed to take an 
> argument; the last one.

You are describing the oddities of the bugs in the command line parser from 
gnu tar. Some of the problems are bugs built into the GNU getopt() function,
others are a result from the preprocessing in gnutar.

tar, ar and ps are the UNIX commands that do not follow the CLI guidelines from 
the late 1970s, see:

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xcu/tar.html

and do not use options that are prepended by '-'.

The origunal UNIX tar just ignores the '-' and parses the options as defined in 
1978.

Star internally correctly converts the first parameter from the historic style 
to something that can be parsed by a modern command line parser such as 
getargs(). GNU tar does not correctly convert the parameters...

Jörg

-- 
 EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
       js@cs.tu-berlin.de                (uni)  
       joerg.schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
 URL:  http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Joerg Schilling wrote:
> Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de> wrote:
>
>   
>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>     
>>> 1) Better use -cjvpf  ("f") takes an argument (the filename of that tar 
>>> to be crated) so it must be at the end.
>>>       
>> That's why I usually use "tar -cjvp -f blabla.tar.bz2".  I always 
>> seperate options that take an argument from the rest.  But -cjvpf works 
>> too as long as "f" is at the end.  This means that if you combine many 
>> options after a single "-", only one one of them is allowed to take an 
>> argument; the last one.
>>     
>
> You are describing the oddities of the bugs in the command line parser from 
> gnu tar. Some of the problems are bugs built into the GNU getopt() function,
> others are a result from the preprocessing in gnutar.
>
> tar, ar and ps are the UNIX commands that do not follow the CLI guidelines from 
> the late 1970s, see:
>
> http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xcu/tar.html
>
> and do not use options that are prepended by '-'.
>
> The origunal UNIX tar just ignores the '-' and parses the options as defined in 
> 1978.
>
> Star internally correctly converts the first parameter from the historic style 
> to something that can be parsed by a modern command line parser such as 
> getargs(). GNU tar does not correctly convert the parameters...
>
> Jörg
>
>   

But as was pointed out a while back, star is not on the Gentoo CD.  If I
had to use that stage4 tarball, it would be while booted from the CD. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> Dale wrote:
>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>> Dale wrote:
>>>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>>>> Dale wrote:
>>>>>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system
>>>>>> just in
>>>>>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were
>>>>>> booted
>>>>>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a
>>>>>> stage 3
>>>>>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one
>>>>>> weird
>>>>>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4
>>>>>> tarball, it
>>>>>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could
>>>>>> update
>>>>>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>>>>>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking
>>>>>> for. It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were
>>>>>> trying to
>>>>>> rescue myself.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at
>>>>>> /mnt/gentoo/
>>>>>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page
>>>>>> but
>>>>>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since
>>>>>> it is
>>>>>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>>>>> You strip the leading directory during extraction using the
>>>>> "--strip=1" option ("1" means "strip 1 leading directory", which will
>>>>> ignore "gentoo/" during extraction.)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> OK.  That makes sense, sort of.  How do the people that make the
>>>> stage3
>>>> tarball do it?  When I extract a stage3 tarball, it doesn't have
>>>> /mnt/gentoo on it at all.  Are they using a "dedicated" install to
>>>> build
>>>> those tarballs on?
>>>>
>>>> Also, since I want it to ignore /mnt/gentoo, wouldn't I have to use
>>>> --strip=2 to remove both /mnt and the /gentoo after that?  Just trying
>>>> to make sure I understand this correctly.
>>>>
>>>> I would like to do this on the creating part if possible.
>>> To do this on creation, you can do use "-C /mnt/gentoo ." as options
>>> (translate: package the current directory of /mnt/gentoo).  The
>>> top-level directory of the tarball will then be "./".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I tried this but it didn't like it very much:
>>
>> root@smoker / # tar -cjfvp /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2 -C
>> /mnt/gentoo/
>> tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
>> tar: /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.bz2: Cannot stat: No such
>> file or directory
>> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
>> root@smoker / #
>>
>> I also tried reversing the thing, thought maybe I had it backwards, but
>> it didn't like that either.  Maybe I'm getting to old for learning new
>> tricks.  LOL
>>
>> Where am I wrong here?
>
> 1) Better use -cjvpf  ("f") takes an argument (the filename of that
> tar to be crated) so it must be at the end.
>
> 2) You are forgetting the dot (= current directory) at the end of the
> command:
>
> tar -cjpf /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.tar.bz2 -C /mnt/gentoo .
>
>
>

Now that worked.  Where are we told about that dot?  I still don't see
it on the man page.  It has examples in there but no dot on the end.

Cool stuff.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:33:03 -0500, Dale wrote:

> Now that worked.  Where are we told about that dot?  I still don't see
> it on the man page.  It has examples in there but no dot on the end.

Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
current directory.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

...Advert for restaurant:
  "Exotic foods for all occasions. Police balls a speciality."

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:33:03 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
>   
>> Now that worked.  Where are we told about that dot?  I still don't see
>> it on the man page.  It has examples in there but no dot on the end.
>>     
>
> Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
> that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
> directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
> current directory.
>
>
>   

Would using a wild card work?  Like this; /mnt/gentoo/*  Just curious.

And to think that I thought a period was only needed for the end of a
sentence.  Learn something new every day I guess.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Xavier Parizet]

Dale a écrit :
> Neil Bothwick wrote:
>> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:33:03 -0500, Dale wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Now that worked.  Where are we told about that dot?  I still don't see
>>> it on the man page.  It has examples in there but no dot on the end.
>>>     
>> Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
>> that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
>> directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
>> current directory.
>>
>>
>>   
> 
> Would using a wild card work?  Like this; /mnt/gentoo/*  Just curious.

No a wildcard will not work as it will be expanded by your shell as 
/mnt/gentoo/boot, /mnt/gentoo/etc, ..., which will get you the same 
behaviour you said was the one you don't want ;)

> And to think that I thought a period was only needed for the end of a
> sentence.  Learn something new every day I guess.
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 
> 


-- 
       Xavier Parizet
YaGB :   http://gentooist.com
GPG  :    DC81 6FEE 6EBE FCE4
1C18 202F E575 4A5D 036D 1408

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Xavier Parizet wrote:
> Dale a écrit :
>> Neil Bothwick wrote:
>>> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:33:03 -0500, Dale wrote:
>>>
>>>  
>>>> Now that worked.  Where are we told about that dot?  I still don't see
>>>> it on the man page.  It has examples in there but no dot on the end.
>>>>     
>>> Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
>>> that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
>>> directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
>>> current directory.
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>
>> Would using a wild card work?  Like this; /mnt/gentoo/*  Just curious.
>
> No a wildcard will not work as it will be expanded by your shell as
> /mnt/gentoo/boot, /mnt/gentoo/etc, ..., which will get you the same
> behaviour you said was the one you don't want ;)

Oh, I won't try that then.  It was a thought tho.  I still can't get
over that period thing. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 01 May 2009 03:04:05 -0500, Dale wrote:

> > Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
> > that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
> > directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
> > current directory.
 
> Would using a wild card work?  Like this; /mnt/gentoo/*  Just curious.

No, because the -C has already changed the working directory
to /mnt/gentoo, so /mnt/gentoo/* would go back to where you were before
(because of the leading/). Using * on its own wouldn't work, because
the shell would expand it before running the tar command. Also, using
* would exclude hidden files. You've been given a working command, why
look for a more complex but flawed  alternative?

tar -C somewhere -blah

is equivalent to

cd somewhere
tar -blah
cd ${OLDPWD}

and workd for both creation and extraction. As you are already using it
for extraction, why not maintain consistency and use it for creation too?

> And to think that I thought a period was only needed for the end of a
> sentence.  Learn something new every day I guess.

 . = current directory
 .. = parent directory

-- 
Neil Bothwick

Are you sure this isn't the time for a colorful metaphor?

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 01 May 2009 03:04:05 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
>   
>>> Tar needs to be given files or directories to include, you didn't and
>>> that's why it refused to make an empty archive. Since -C chnges to the
>>> directory you want to backup, you use . to tell it to backup the (now)
>>> current directory.
>>>       
>  
>   
>> Would using a wild card work?  Like this; /mnt/gentoo/*  Just curious.
>>     
>
> No, because the -C has already changed the working directory
> to /mnt/gentoo, so /mnt/gentoo/* would go back to where you were before
> (because of the leading/). Using * on its own wouldn't work, because
> the shell would expand it before running the tar command. Also, using
> * would exclude hidden files. You've been given a working command, why
> look for a more complex but flawed  alternative?
>   

True, just learning a little bit.  I get these wild hairs every once in
a while.   lol


> tar -C somewhere -blah
>
> is equivalent to
>
> cd somewhere
> tar -blah
> cd ${OLDPWD}
>
> and workd for both creation and extraction. As you are already using it
> for extraction, why not maintain consistency and use it for creation too?
>
>   
>> And to think that I thought a period was only needed for the end of a
>> sentence.  Learn something new every day I guess.
>>     
>
>  . = current directory
>  .. = parent directory
>
>   

Should those dots make my light bulb shine brighter?  I did forget about
those tho.  It's been a while since I used those too.  You know, cd ..
goes up one level. 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:44:57 -0500, Dale wrote:

> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.

The same way you change directory when you extract, with -C.

tar cf archive.tar -C /mnt/gentoo .


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Who is the oldest inhabitant of this village?"
"We haven't got one; we had one, but he died three weeks ago."

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Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:44:57 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
>   
>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>>     
>
> The same way you change directory when you extract, with -C.
>
> tar cf archive.tar -C /mnt/gentoo .
>
>
>   

Well, it don't like that here.  I used your command and replaced with
the correct parts of course:

root@smoker / # tar cf /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.tar -C
/mnt/gentoo
tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
root@smoker / #

I'm missing something that is likely very obvious here.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:45:36 -0500, Dale wrote:

> > The same way you change directory when you extract, with -C.
> >
> > tar cf archive.tar -C /mnt/gentoo .

> Well, it don't like that here.  I used your command and replaced with
> the correct parts of course:
> 
> root@smoker / # tar cf /data/Gentoo-stuff/stage4-x86-04-2009.tar -C
> /mnt/gentoo
> tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
> Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
> root@smoker / #
> 
> I'm missing something that is likely very obvious here.

Yep, the final '.'


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Bother," said Pooh, as the children didn't hand over their savings.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Joerg Schilling]

Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:44:57 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
> > How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
> > as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
> > suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
> > done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>
> The same way you change directory when you extract, with -C.

Does gnu tar really did copy star behavior and now allows to use -C in extract 
mode?

Well, star still combines the pattern matcher with -C and thus allows to 
combine -C with pat= and thus to extract and sort controlled by patterns.

Jörg

-- 
 EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
       js@cs.tu-berlin.de                (uni)  
       joerg.schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
 URL:  http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Stroller]

On 1 May 2009, at 10:26, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> ...
> Does gnu tar really did copy star behavior and now allows to use -C  
> in extract
> mode?

Surely gtar should not emulate star's behaviour? Surely it is only  
correct to emulate the behaviour of some original Unix tar (without  
prefix, s- or g- or otherwise), or follow the specifications of some  
standards document?

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Joerg Schilling]

Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:

> On 1 May 2009, at 10:26, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> > ...
> > Does gnu tar really did copy star behavior and now allows to use -C  
> > in extract
> > mode?
>
> Surely gtar should not emulate star's behaviour? Surely it is only  
> correct to emulate the behaviour of some original Unix tar (without  
> prefix, s- or g- or otherwise), or follow the specifications of some  
> standards document?

If gnu tsr would follow the specifications from the Single UNIX specification

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xcu/tar.html

there would be less problems ;-)

Jörg

-- 
 EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
       js@cs.tu-berlin.de                (uni)  
       joerg.schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
 URL:  http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Daniel Troeder]

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On Thu, 2009-04-30 at 14:44 -0500, Dale wrote:
> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking for. 
> It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were trying to
> rescue myself.
> 
> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
I do just
# cd /mnt/gentoo
# tar cjpf /somewhere/gentoo4.tar.bz2 .
                                          ^ dot @ the end!

Which produces a tarball containg everything under "." - which is the
CWD -> ./bin ./boot ...and so on.

Bye,
Daniel

-- 
PGP key @ http://pgpkeys.pca.dfn.de/pks/lookup?search=0xBB9D4887&op=get
# gpg --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://subkeys.pgp.net 0xBB9D4887


[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part --]
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Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Daniel Troeder wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-04-30 at 14:44 -0500, Dale wrote:
>   
>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.  I have one weird
>> thing tho that has me confused.  When it creates the stage 4 tarball, it
>> is in /mnt/gentoo.  Today I unpacked the stage 4 so that I could update
>> it and when I do a tar xjpf stage4 -C /mnt/gentoo, it actually looks
>> like this, /mnt/gentoo/mnt/gentoo/ which is not what I am looking for. 
>> It doesn't matter on a running system, but it would if I were trying to
>> rescue myself.
>>
>> How do I tell tar when I am making the tarball to look at /mnt/gentoo/
>> as it start point, root directory if you will?  I read the man page but
>> suspect I am missing it somewhere.  There has to be a way since it is
>> done that way for the stage 3 tarball.
>>     
> I do just
> # cd /mnt/gentoo
> # tar cjpf /somewhere/gentoo4.tar.bz2 .
>                                           ^ dot @ the end!
>
> Which produces a tarball containg everything under "." - which is the
> CWD -> ./bin ./boot ...and so on.
>
> Bye,
> Daniel
>
>   

I have to confess, I am always in the root directory, as in /.  That
makes sense too.  I'll try to remember to try that next time.

Thanks

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Stroller]

On 30 Apr 2009, at 20:44, Dale wrote:

> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.

I don't understand how this creates a stage4 of your system.

How EXACTLY are you creating the stage4, please? What guide are you  
following?

When I have in the past created a backup stage4 (which I have to admit  
I've never needed to test), I have used a stage4.exclude file like  
that described at [1], then used the tar command specified there.

<insert s-tar comment or joke here>

Either I'm confused, or I expect the remainder of the thread to be  
confused because the basic premise of what you're trying to do has not  
been clearly defined.

Stroller.



[1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 30 Apr 2009, at 20:44, Dale wrote:
>
>> I try to keep a "up to date" stage 4 tarball here in my system just in
>> case.  I basically did the creation just like I would if I were booted
>> from the CD.  I created /mnt/gentoo/ on my system, extracted a stage 3
>> there, then chroot in and create a stage 4 tarball.
>
> I don't understand how this creates a stage4 of your system.
>
> How EXACTLY are you creating the stage4, please? What guide are you
> following?
>
> When I have in the past created a backup stage4 (which I have to admit
> I've never needed to test), I have used a stage4.exclude file like
> that described at [1], then used the tar command specified there.
>
> <insert s-tar comment or joke here>
>
> Either I'm confused, or I expect the remainder of the thread to be
> confused because the basic premise of what you're trying to do has not
> been clearly defined.
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>
> [1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system
>
>

Well, I do something like this.  Once every few months I extract that
stage4 tarball to /mnt/gentoo.  I then mount my portage partition to
/mnt/gentoo/usr/portage.  I then mount proc and chroot in.  Then I do a
emerge -uvDN world to update everything, log out of the chroot and
umount proc and portage.  Then I create a new tarball that has the date
in the name.  I keep a couple of these stored on on my backups as well. 

I don't want to download a prebuilt stage3 because I'm on dialup here
and it takes a long time to download.  So, I just make my own and update
them when needed. 

Make sense? 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Stroller]

On 1 May 2009, at 10:38, Dale wrote:
> ...
> Well, I do something like this.  Once every few months I extract that
> stage4 tarball to /mnt/gentoo.  I then mount my portage partition to
> /mnt/gentoo/usr/portage.  I then mount proc and chroot in.  Then I  
> do a
> emerge -uvDN world to update everything, log out of the chroot and
> umount proc and portage.  Then I create a new tarball that has the  
> date
> in the name.  I keep a couple of these stored on on my backups as  
> well.


I'm confusled. :/

Why do you update the stage 3, rather than simply creating the stage 4  
from your current functioning system?

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 1 May 2009, at 10:38, Dale wrote:
>> ...
>> Well, I do something like this.  Once every few months I extract that
>> stage4 tarball to /mnt/gentoo.  I then mount my portage partition to
>> /mnt/gentoo/usr/portage.  I then mount proc and chroot in.  Then I do a
>> emerge -uvDN world to update everything, log out of the chroot and
>> umount proc and portage.  Then I create a new tarball that has the date
>> in the name.  I keep a couple of these stored on on my backups as well.
>
>
> I'm confusled. :/
>
> Why do you update the stage 3, rather than simply creating the stage 4
> from your current functioning system?
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>

Well, that will be next on my list.  I do make backups of my system but
having the stage4 would be faster and give me something to boot into to
restore my backups with.  For some reason my hard drives are very slow
when booted off the cd.  My plan is to restore stage4 to a old hard
drive, emerge the kernel, build a kernel, install grub, and then boot
from that and restore my backups.

I do plan to start looking into other ways of restoring tho.  Just not
sure how I'm going to do that yet.  Most likely still stage4 since I got
it about figured out.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Stroller]

On 1 May 2009, at 19:33, Dale wrote:
> Stroller wrote:
>> ...
>> I'm confusled. :/
>>
>> Why do you update the stage 3, rather than simply creating the  
>> stage 4
>> from your current functioning system?
>
> Well, that will be next on my list.  I do make backups of my system  
> but
> having the stage4 would be faster and give me something to boot into  
> to
> restore my backups with.

But AIUI you can create stage4 backups of your working system.

Restoration would be: boot from any old CD, untar stage4, reboot,  
perfectly functioning system just as it was before.

What, in your mind, is the difference between the "faster stage4" and  
a backup of your system? Surely there should be none.

Stroller.
  

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 1 May 2009, at 19:33, Dale wrote:
>> Stroller wrote:
>>> ...
>>> I'm confusled. :/
>>>
>>> Why do you update the stage 3, rather than simply creating the stage 4
>>> from your current functioning system?
>>
>> Well, that will be next on my list.  I do make backups of my system but
>> having the stage4 would be faster and give me something to boot into to
>> restore my backups with.
>
> But AIUI you can create stage4 backups of your working system.
>
> Restoration would be: boot from any old CD, untar stage4, reboot,
> perfectly functioning system just as it was before.
>
> What, in your mind, is the difference between the "faster stage4" and
> a backup of your system? Surely there should be none.
>
> Stroller.
>  
>
>

You are correct in what you are saying.  I'm just sort of chewing on
this apple a little at a time.  I plan to copy my world file over to the
backup section and build it there or just backup my current install
one.  I'm sure it can be done on my current install so I may bite on
that instead.  I'm just sort of a chicken on some things.  The last gcc
upgrade really made me nervous.  Speaking of, I need to sync again if I
can get my nerve up again.  lol  I haven't updated in a while and we all
know how Gentoo hates that.  ;-)

I'm going to find that link again that someone posted.  It is for the
stage4 how to.  I forgot to bookmark it but I got the email here still.

Oh, I actually plan to boot from the CD and restore from a DVD.  I got
me a DVD burner a while back.  That works a LOT better.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> I don't understand how this creates a stage4 of your system.
>
> How EXACTLY are you creating the stage4, please? What guide are you
> following?
>
> When I have in the past created a backup stage4 (which I have to admit
> I've never needed to test), I have used a stage4.exclude file like
> that described at [1], then used the tar command specified there.
>
> <insert s-tar comment or joke here>
>
> Either I'm confused, or I expect the remainder of the thread to be
> confused because the basic premise of what you're trying to do has not
> been clearly defined.
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>
> [1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system
>
>

I'm wanting to print this page, from the link above.  Is it me or does
some of the lines run off the edge of the margins and get lost?  I have
tried this in both Seamonkey and Konqueror with the same results.  I
also tried to copy and paste it to OOo and Kwrite and it cuts it off
too.  One line that seems consistent is the line about options not being
used with tar, the -p option.  It looks ok on the website but not when
printed.

Just curious.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Stroller]

On 2 May 2009, at 03:55, Dale wrote:
>> ...
>>
>> [1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system
>>
>>
>
> I'm wanting to print this page, from the link above.  Is it me or does
> some of the lines run off the edge of the margins and get lost?  I  
> have
> tried this in both Seamonkey and Konqueror with the same results.  I
> also tried to copy and paste it to OOo and Kwrite and it cuts it off
> too.  One line that seems consistent is the line about options not  
> being
> used with tar, the -p option.  It looks ok on the website but not when
> printed.

Works fine here using Safari's "print" then "Save as PDF", but a bit  
whacky when you right-click & choose "export to PDF". The latter would  
normally print the whole lot as a single page of unrestrained length,  
but it is blank after the end of the first paragraph ("However, there  
may be problems with this alternate method if you use the stage4 on  
systems with different hardware configurations."). I would have  
expected the latter to be the more reliable print method, TBH.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 2 May 2009, at 03:55, Dale wrote:
>>> ...
>>>
>>> [1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'm wanting to print this page, from the link above.  Is it me or does
>> some of the lines run off the edge of the margins and get lost?  I have
>> tried this in both Seamonkey and Konqueror with the same results.  I
>> also tried to copy and paste it to OOo and Kwrite and it cuts it off
>> too.  One line that seems consistent is the line about options not being
>> used with tar, the -p option.  It looks ok on the website but not when
>> printed.
>
> Works fine here using Safari's "print" then "Save as PDF", but a bit
> whacky when you right-click & choose "export to PDF". The latter would
> normally print the whole lot as a single page of unrestrained length,
> but it is blank after the end of the first paragraph ("However, there
> may be problems with this alternate method if you use the stage4 on
> systems with different hardware configurations."). I would have
> expected the latter to be the more reliable print method, TBH.
>
> Stroller.
>

I was just curious if it was a setting or something on my end.  Usually
when both Seamonkey and Konqueror do the same thing then it is not a bad
setting but it does look like the page should be printable as well.  Is
this a bug that should be reported?  I also wonder if this is the only
page like this?

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Question about making a tarball

[Dale]

Stroller wrote:
>
> On 2 May 2009, at 03:55, Dale wrote:
>>> ...
>>>
>>> [1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Custom_Stage4#The_TAR_system
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'm wanting to print this page, from the link above.  Is it me or does
>> some of the lines run off the edge of the margins and get lost?  I have
>> tried this in both Seamonkey and Konqueror with the same results.  I
>> also tried to copy and paste it to OOo and Kwrite and it cuts it off
>> too.  One line that seems consistent is the line about options not being
>> used with tar, the -p option.  It looks ok on the website but not when
>> printed.
>
> Works fine here using Safari's "print" then "Save as PDF", but a bit
> whacky when you right-click & choose "export to PDF". The latter would
> normally print the whole lot as a single page of unrestrained length,
> but it is blank after the end of the first paragraph ("However, there
> may be problems with this alternate method if you use the stage4 on
> systems with different hardware configurations."). I would have
> expected the latter to be the more reliable print method, TBH.
>
> Stroller.
>

I just noticed something on the pdf you sent offlist.  It has a
horizontal scroll thingy and doesn't print the whole line either.  It
also looked to me like the script sections that were more than a page
long got cut off on the bottom.  I think someone needs a better plan for
those pages. 

I also clicked the link on the left to make the page printable, it
didn't work either.  It seems there is no way to print this page and it
not cut off the longer lines. 


Weird.

Dale

:-)  :-)