can't untar a complete directory using tar -cvpzf

Question

Banging my head on this one...

I used tar -cvpzf file.tar.gz to compress a complete directory.

I move the file to another server and i try to decompress the directory where i have copied the archive. Can't make it work.

bash-3.2$ tar -xvpzf news.tar.gz .       
tar: gzip: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: .: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Anyone ?

Solution 1

Your tar can't find gzip. If you don't have gzip, you can't make a .gz file. You should look for a gzip executable on your system. What kind of system is it?

In the meantime, you could leave off the "z" and just transfer a .tar file. It will be bigger, but at least you'll be able to move your data to the other server.

Solution 2

Install gzip, for example ubuntu-

apt-get install gzip

Then untar it -

tar -xzf file.tar.gz

Solution 3

Gzip was not installed on this server (VPS). I should have check this part first instead of relying on assumption.

Lessons learn

Solution 4

install bzip2 and then it should be working. for example in debian/ubuntu

sudo apt-get install bzip2

or in gentoo

emerge bzip2

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