You should always use the f option to specify the archive - for example tar -tzf archive.tgz
to list or tar -xzf archive.tgz to extract. In your example below, you didn't specify an archive so it defaulted to the device /dev/sa0, which it couldn't open. Any extra arguments are treated as archive members - eg tar -xzf archive.tgz files/to/extract In your example below, it was trying to find 2 files in a non-existent archive. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin McCormick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Extracting individual Files via tar > The command > > tar ztf /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz > > produces a table of contents just like the man page says it should. > The man page also says that individual files can be recovered or > listed but I haven't gotten that to work at all. if I try: > > $ tar zt ports/print/pstotext/ /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz > > tar (child): /dev/sa0: Cannot open: Permission denied > tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now > > gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file > tar: Child returned status 2 > tar: ports/print/pstotext: Not found in archive > tar: /usr/local/src/ports.tar.gz: Not found in archive > tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors > > In the successful test, tar obviously knew which specification > was the archive and was able to uncompress it with the z flag. The > file specification I am attempting to recover from the archive throws > tar completely off. I looked in the handbook and all the examples I > found were the more usual procedure of unpacking whole file systems > as in > > tar zxf somedir/archive.tar.gz > > I'm not having trouble with that use of tar. > > Thank you. > > Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK > OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group > _______________________________________________ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"