Forcing tar to create an empty archive

Posted by snostorm on Super User See other posts from Super User or by snostorm
Published on 2010-04-21T01:53:13Z Indexed on 2010/04/21 1:54 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 274

Filed under:

linux

|

tar

|

file

|

file-transfer

|

backup

I'm trying to use tar to tar files before transfer, so I can keep the entire file path rather than losing it along the way. However, when I try to tar an empty folder, it tells me that it is cowardly refusing to create an empty archive. I want to keep the empty folder on the other end, but don't want to put anything else into the archive to make it non-empty. Is there any way to do this?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about tar

Extract tar with multiple tars inside?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Is there a way to untar a file with multiple tars inside? It's suppose to just untar everything inside including untarring the tars inside the tar... With windows it does it, quite annoying I can't figure it out on linux... Here is what I am doing: # tar -xvf socialengine4.0.5p1.tar core-base-4… >>> More
TAR command to extract a single file from a .tar.gz

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Does anyone have a command syntax for extracting 1 file from a .tar.gz that also allows me to place the extracted file in a certain directory? I have Google'd this and get too many variations with a lot of forum threads stating the syntax doesn't work. Before I venture on I prefer to know the command… >>> More
tar fails to open .tar file on OS X

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I need to unarchive a file to the /Developer folder. My file is in /Users/User/Desktop/VMware/Downloads And I am trying tar -xf qt-everywhere-ios-4.8.0-arm7-nossl.tar.gz -C /Developer and keep getting: Lions-Mac:Downloads User$ tar -xf qt-everywhere-ios-4.8.0-arm7-nossl.tar -C /Developer tar:… >>> More
Zero sized tar.gz file found inside a tar.gz file

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
My current directory contains a single file like this- $ls -l -rw-r--r-- 1 root staff 8 May 28 09:10 pavan Now, I want to tar and gzip this file like $tar -cvf - * 2>/dev/null |gzip -vf9 > pavan.tar.gz 2>/dev/null (I am aware I am creating the zipped file in the… >>> More
MinGW tar compression problem

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am unable to get the Mingw tar to work with compress files. It does not filter through the proper compression utility. However, tar will work if I manually uncompress the file first. I have tried in both the MSYS shell and Windows cmd. Has anyone had this problem or is it a MinGW bug? For example… >>> More