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datahoarder @lemmy.ml jmshrv @lemmy.world

Alternatives to tar for archiving Linux system?

Whenever I wipe my PC, I use tar to make an archive of the whole system. This works, but having to decompress the whole archive to pull files out is very annoying. Is there another archive format that:

  • Preserves permissions (i.e., is Unix-y)
  • Supports strong compression (I use either zstd or xz depending on how long I can be bothered to wait)
  • Supports pulling out individual files quickly
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  • At least on the Mac (bsdtar) you can extract single files out of a tar file.

    E.g.,

    Create the tar file:

    tar cvzf pseudo.tgz pseudo/

    Move to another directory

    cd /tmp/tt

    Extract a single file:

    tar -xf ../pseudo.tgz pseudo/10481_2017.1069.png

    You say PC, so might want to check the tar version you are using and see if there are extra parameters to do the file extraction.

18 comments