Extracting to another directory using cygwin

UNIX for Beginners Q & A
1

I have a file, in Windows, called php_0.27.tar.gz and want to extract it to

C:\Program Files\PHP\script through Cygwin using this command:
tar -xf php_0.27.tar.gz -C /Program Files/PHP/script But I got an error saying:

tar: Files: Not found in archive

I tried this command too:
tar -xf php_.tar.gz --directory /Program Files/PHP/script But I got an other error saying:

tar: php_0.27.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory

So I tried:
tar -xf php_.tar.gz --directory C:/Program Files/PHP/script But I failed and now I am stuck. I need help

2

It is a gzipped tar file, try:

tar -zxf ......

to gunzip prior to extracting...

3

Thank you

I added the "z" as you told me but the Cygwin still says "not found in archive " this is the result I got so far :

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz -C /Program Files/PHP/script // not found in archive

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz -C C:/Program Files/PHP/script // not found in archive

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz -C C:\Program Files\PHP\script // not found in archive

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz --directory /Program Files/PHP/script // not found in archive

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz --directory /Program Files/PHP/script // not found in archive

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz --directory C:/Program Files/PHP/script // not found in archive

4

First try

tar -ztvf some_file.tar.gz

to check which files are contained in the gripped tar archive...

5

Thank you but I get it . It is because of the space in /Program Files/ directory name :
There is space between Program and Files . In Unix , Spaces in file name are illegal and provoke only errors . Hence come the error "not found in archive" or " no such file or directory " to avoid this , the whole directory path should be quoted like this :

tar -zxf php_.tar.gz -C "C:/Program Files/PHP/script"

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6

That's not quite correct - spaces in file names are NOT illegal in *nix, and they do NOT provoke only errors, but: they need to be dealt with. And, if I remember correctly (and faintly), that's not different in MS products - file names with spaces NEED to be quoted there as well!

7

Thank you for the information

8

IIRC, if you are in CygWin then the location is at:-
/cygdrive/c/progra~1/php/script
OR
/cygdrive/c/"program files"/php/script
Depending on the Windows version.
I don't think this path is case sensitive...

9

interesting . Instead of putting the whole directory between double quotes , we put only the file name in which there is the space between double quotes . Good idea

Thanks