Hi, thanks for responding. I was going off of http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1204469251779+28353475&threadId=1178036
The difference being the "." (dot) to match everything. However in gnu tar, I'm able to use a single directory when I type in the command line as I mentioned Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>tar -c -f Top.tar Top J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>tar -t -v -f Top.tar drwsrwsrwx user/group 0 2008-02-29 21:16 Top/ drwsrwsrwx user/group 0 2008-02-29 21:16 Top/Middle/ drwsrwsrwx user/group 0 2008-02-29 21:16 Top/Middle/Bottom/ J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp> It creates the archive just fine, when I reference only "Top" as the file or input argument. However the problem is that gnu tar won't take the piped arguments from the find command to build a similar archive. I want to be able to "do it on the fly" meaning I don't have to build an empty dir structure then build the archive. In the meantime I've found a alternative method, which isn't so bad... (Just substitue Writing for Top as a folder in the following) J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>xcopy c:\writing "J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp\writing\" /t /e :<-- creates an empty/temporary structure J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>tar -c -f Writing.tar writing '<-- creates an archive of the dir structure J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>tar -t -v -f Writing.tar ;<--- shows all folders J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>rd /q /s writing ;<--- removes the blank/temporary structure. I was hoping there was a way to pipe the folder names to tar, but so far no joy. Jay On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 7:23 PM, Bob Proulx <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gadrin wrote: > > if I use > > J:\Temp Folders\wbtTemp>tar -c -f Test.tar | find Top ! -type f > > tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive > > Try `tar --help' for more information. > > Top > > Top\Middle > > Top\Middle\Bottom > > > > tar gives up and won't create the archive. Am I doing something > > wrong ? Just not possible ? > > Yes, you are doing something silly. :-) The -c option creates an > archive. You are telling tar with 'tar -c -f Test.tar' to create a > tar archive Test.tar. But you didn't give it any file arguments on > the command line. > > And you are piping that into find which doesn't make sense to me > either. The find comand will find files and take an action such as > outputing the name or other things but doesn't make sense receiving > whatever input was going to go into it there. > > You probably wanted to do something like this: > > tar -c -f Test.tar `find Top -type d` > > Except that requires a unix like command shell and your message showed > you using the MS command.com and this won't work there. It would work > in bash but not in command.com. You might be able to use bash for the > command line like this. I have not tried it. > > bash -c "tar -c -f Test.tar `find Top -type d`" > > Bob > -- Thanks, Gadrin
