Iwould like to find all documents file *.doc and create a tarball of those files and store in /nfs/backups/docs/file.tar. Is it possible to find and tar files on a Linux or Unix-like system?
The find command used to search for files in a directory hierarchy as per given criteria. The tar command is an archiving utility for Linux and Unix-like system to create tarballs.
Let us see how to combine tar command with find command to create a tarball in a single command line option.
Find command
The syntax is:
find /path/to/search -name "file-to-search" -options
## find all Perl (*.pl) files ##
find $HOME -name "*.pl" -print
## find all *.doc files ##
find $HOME -name "*.doc" -print
## find all *.sh (shell scripts) and run ls -l command on it ##
find . -iname "*.sh" -exec ls -l {} +
Sample outputs from the last command:
| -rw-r--r-- <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1169</span> Apr <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">4</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2017</span> ./backups/ansible/cluster/nginx.build.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1500</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">6</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span>:<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">36</span> ./bin/cloudflare.pure.url.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">13</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/cmspostupload.sh -> postupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">12</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/cmspreupload.sh -> preupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/cmssuploadimage.sh -> uploadimage.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">13</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/faqpostupload.sh -> postupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">12</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/faqpreupload.sh -> preupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/faquploadimage.sh -> uploadimage.sh<br />-rw-r--r-- <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">778</span> Nov <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">6</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span>:<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">44</span> ./bin/mirror.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">136</span> Apr <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">25</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2015</span> ./bin/nixcraft.com.301.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">547</span> Jan <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">30</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2017</span> ./bin/paypal.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">531</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/postupload.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">437</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/preupload.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1046</span> May <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">18</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2017</span> ./bin/purge.all.cloudflare.domain.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">13</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/tipspostupload.sh -> postupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">12</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/tipspreupload.sh -> preupload.sh<br />lrwxrwxrwx <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span> Dec <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">31</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/tipsuploadimage.sh -> uploadimage.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1193</span> Oct <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">18</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">2013</span> ./bin/uploadimage.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">29</span> Nov <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">6</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span>:<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">33</span> ./.vim/plugged/neomake/tests/fixtures/errors.sh<br />-rwxr-xr-x <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">1</span> vivek vivek <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">215</span> Nov <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">6</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">14</span>:<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">33</span> ./.vim/plugged/neomake/tests/helpers/trap.sh |
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Tar command
Combining find and tar commands
The syntax is:
find /dir/to/search/ -name "*.doc" -exec tar -rvf out.tar {} ;
OR
find /dir/to/search/ -name "*.doc" -exec tar -rvf out.tar {} +
For example:
find $HOME -name "*.doc" -exec tar -rvf /tmp/all-doc-files.tar "{}" ;
OR
find $HOME -name "*.doc" -exec tar -rvf /tmp/all-doc-files.tar "{}" +
Where, find command options:
- -name "*.doc" : Find file as per given pattern/criteria. In this case find all *.doc files in $HOME.
- -exec tar ... : Execute tar command on all files found by the find command.
Where, tar command options:
- -r : Append files to the end of an archive. Arguments have the same meaning as for -c option.
- -v : Verbose output.
- -f : out.tar : Append all files to out.tar file.
It is also possible to pipe output of the find command to the tar command as follows:
find $HOME -name "*.doc" -print0 | tar -cvf /tmp/file.tar --null -T -
The -print0 option passed to the find command deals with special file names. The –null and -T – option tells the tar command to read its input from stdin/pipe. It is also possible to use the xargs command:
find $HOME -type f -name "*.sh" | xargs tar cfvz /nfs/x230/my-shell-scripts.tgz
See the following man pages for more info:
$ man tar
$ man find
$ man xargs
$ man bash
