Bent Terp wrote: > On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 4:49 AM, Robert <kerplop at sbcglobal.net> wrote: > >> I'm sure there will be other ideas but in the absence of an "include these >> files" file option, you could employ a simple loop to append the files in a >> > > man tar: > -T, --files-from F > get names to extract or create from file F > Yes, I overlooked that option, as I imagine the OP did. >> list to a tar archive. For example, if you had a file named "include" with >> these 3 records >> >> /bin/gawk >> /etc/fstab >> /etc/resolv.conf >> >> This would cause the 3 files to be archived as "included.tar". >> [rj at mavis ~]$ while read inc ; do echo "including:" $inc ; tar -v -r $inc -f >> included.tar ; done < include >> > > or: tar -jvrc included.tar.bz2 --files-from include > Almost.... 1. Options "r" and "c" are mutually exclusive. tar: You may not specify more than one `-Acdtrux' option Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information. 2. Without the "f" option, output goes to std out This works: [rj at mavis ~]$ tar -jvcf included.tar.bz2 --files-from include tar: Removing leading `/' from member names /bin/gawk /etc/fstab /etc/resolv.conf [rj at mavis ~]$ I hope the OP has followed this far without giving up on our combined blunders. :-( > BR Bent > KRS Robert