Re: [Bug-tar] Parsing the output of `tar tvf'

[Joerg Schilling]

Helmut Waitzmann <address@hidden> wrote:

> $ tar -tvf
>
> Look at this example.  Execute it in an empty directory:
>
> $ ln -s -- link 'file ->' && ln -s -- '-> link' file && \
>   tar -c -f - . | LC_ALL=C tar -tvf -
> drwx------ helmut/helmut   0 2006-01-12 06:30:47 ./
> lrwxrwxrwx helmut/helmut   0 2006-01-12 06:30:31 ./file -> -> link
> lrwxrwxrwx helmut/helmut   0 2006-01-12 06:30:47 ./file -> -> link
>
> As you can see, one cannot distinguish the two symlinks 'file ->' and
> 'file'.  Sorry.  tar -tvf is broken by design.
>
> So you can't help looking into the tape archive yourself.  Tar -tvf does
> not do its job.

tar has not been designed for this usage but as GNU tar is a tar clone it could
add the apropriate extensions via new options.

star gives you two way to deal with your problem:

1)
        star -t -tpath < archive.tar

2)
        star -t -find -print -false < archive.tar
or even:
        star -t -find -ls -false < archive.tar

Jörg

-- 
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