zcat on Linux

Linux and Unix-Like Linux
1

Hi

I am trying to extract a <filename>.tar.Z on a SLES machine using zcat.

The command I am using is
zcat <filename>.tar.Z | tar xf -

When I use the above I get the following message
tar: Read 7168 bytes from -

I think the message is benign because I see that my files where extracted.
Any ideas on why I see this message and if the command I am using is correct for Linux.

Thanks!

2

It appears to be correct - you are reading from "-" which is stdin -- in this case the right hand side of the pipe

3

Hi Jim

>>you are reading from "-" which is stdin -- in this case the right hand side >>of the pipe

Can you explain this better (I mean the use of "-")? When I specify
"zcat <filename>.tar.Z | tar xf -", does putting "-" after the tar command tell tar to read stdin from zcat command?

In regards to the problem, I found that just running tar -zxf <filename>.tar.Z does not give me an issue, it seems to be with zcat on linux. Anything else I can try?

Thanks!