How do I delete OR remove a single file from within a tar ball under Unix / Linux like operating systems?
You can use the following syntax to delete a file from a tar ball:
tar --delete -f example.tar filename
Example: Delete a File From a Tar Ball
First, create a tar ball for testing purpose using the tar command, enter:
# cd /tmp
# tar -cvf foo.tar /etc
To display a list of files, enter:
# tar -tvf foo.tar
OR
# tar -tvf foo.tar | grep 'etc/resolv.conf'
Sample outputs:
-rw-r--r-- root/root 30 2011-09-20 17:51 etc/resolv.conf.tmp
-rw-r--r-- root/root 185 2011-07-27 20:35 etc/resolv.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 185 2011-07-27 20:35 etc/resolv.conf.pppd-backup.ppp0
-rw-r--r-- root/root 51 2011-07-12 03:14 etc/resolv.conf~
To delete a file called ‘etc/resolv.conf’ from a tar ball called foo.tar, enter:
# tar --delete -f foo.tar etc/resolv.conf
Verify that file has been deleted from the tar ball:
# tar -tvf foo.tar | grep 'etc/resolv.conf'
Sample outputs:
-rw-r--r-- root/root 30 2011-09-20 17:51 etc/resolv.conf.tmp -rw-r--r-- root/root 185 2011-07-27 20:35 etc/resolv.conf.pppd-backup.ppp0 -rw-r--r-- root/root 51 2011-07-12 03:14 etc/resolv.conf~
To delete all etc/resolv.conf files, use the –wildcards opitons. It will enable pattern matching:
# tar --wildcards --delete -f foo.tar 'etc/resolv.conf*'
Use the following command to verify that files deleted from the tar ball:
# tar -tvf foo.tar | grep 'etc/resolv.conf'
Please note that you are not allowed to modify or delete files from compressed archives such as tar.gz or tar.bz2.
See also:
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I didn’t know this could be done. Unfortunately, it isn’t available in Mac OS X.
Of course this can be worked around with pipes. An example with an archive made with tar cJf Compress.tar.lzma