Way for tar to check for new files not in an archive

filestarupdate

Is there a way to for the tar command to check for new files that are not already in the archive, or those that have been deleted (for good measure)?

Best Answer

You could use tar -d to see if local filesystem files are different or missing.

To add new files, just use tar -u to add only files newer than the copy in the archive.

tar -cvf /tmp/backup.tar /home # adds all files
echo Hello > /home/newfile.txt
tar -uvf /tmp/backup.tar /home # adds only newfile.txt
rm /home/newfile.txt
tar -df /tmp/backup.tar /home # gives an error about newfile.txt missing

Related Solutions

Linux command line – search a file inside a tar archive

Try this (omit the initial slash):

tar -tzf backup_2010-09-27.tar.gz etc/passwd

Tar – Avoid Archiving Files Larger Than Certain Size

Simpler than you think:

$ tar cf small-archive.tar /big/tree --exclude-from <(find /big/tree -size +3M)

On a semi-related note (relating to your statement that you can't use find) to get a listing of all files (including directories) under a path minus files larger than 3MiB, use:

$ find . -size -3M -o -type d

You could then do:

$ tar cf small-archive.tar --no-recursion --files-from <(find /big/tree -size -3M -o -type d)

But I'd prefer the first one as it's simpler, clearly expresses what you want and will lead to less surprises.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux command line – search a file inside a tar archive

Tar – Avoid Archiving Files Larger Than Certain Size

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