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sbuck
Asked: 2010-03-31 09:51:35 +0800 CST

tar a directory and only include certain file types

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Following the instructions here: http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/lpt/20_08.html

I'm aiming to tar up a directory but only want to include .php files from that directory.

Given the aforementioned instructions, I've come up with this command. It creates a file called IncludeTheseFiles which lists all the .php files, then the tar is supposed to do it's job only using the files listed in IncludeTheseFiles

find myProjectDirectory -type f -print | \
egrep '(\.[php]|[Mm]akefile)$' > IncludeTheseFiles
tar cvf myProjectTarName -I IncludeTheseFiles

However, when I run this it doesn't like the I include option?

tar: invalid option -- I
linux command-line-interface tar

3 Answers

  1. This does the trick, no comparison file needed:

    find myProjectDirectory -type f \( -name \*\.php -o -name \*\.js -o -name \*\.css -o -name \*\.inc \) | xargs tar -rf myProjectTarName.tar
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  2. Reading the man page for Gnu tar on my Ubuntu 8.04 system, it says:

    -T, --files-from F
    get names to extract or archive from file F

    It does not reference a -I option other than to mention that historically it was used to request bzip compression.

    • 1

  3. You should be able to specify stdin as the source for your filenames. Try:

    find myProjectDirectory -type f -regextype posix-egrep -regex ".*/(.*\.[php]|[Mm]akefile)$ -print | \
tar cvf myProjectTarName --files-from=-
    • 1