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Accepted
Kit Sunde
Asked: 2011-04-16 06:58:16 +0800 CST

Extra dash insertion when trying to run tar

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I have a really weird issue where I'm getting an extra - insertion on tar:

# tar -zxvf mod_wsgi-3.3.tar.gz 
/bin/tar: unrecognized option '--zxvf'
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.

The same issue happens if I try to do --help

# tar --help
/bin/tar: unrecognized option `---help'
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.

But if I drop the first - both of the above examples work. Any ideas on how I can find and disable whatever is causing that?

bash

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I suspect there's an alias or function mangling your tar.

    Post the output of alias | grep tar and set | grep -E "function tar|tar \(\)"

    (I know I should leave a comment, but I don't have enough rep-point for commenting, yet)

    Edit: Also, post the output of which tar please.

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