How do I work with a .tar.Bz2 file - SOLVED

[Scoticus]

It has been suggested that I download a file in an attempt to resolve a problem I am having.

The file is a .tar.Bz2 file and I am at a loss as to what I do if I download it.

Can anyone offer guidance on this please

Ian

[MU]

If xarchive cannot open it (did not try), you can do in a terminal:

cd /whereyoudownloaded
tar -xjvf thefile.tar.bz2

Or install XFE, and right-click -> extract here.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=16015
Mark

[Pizzasgood]

In my experience in Puppy, you can just use tar -xf thefile.tar.bz2 and it will work with .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, and .tbz. That may not always be the case in other distros, or if Barry changed the tar program. But it is for now

In case you're wondering, a .tar.bz2 file is actually a group of files in a .tar archive that was compressed with bzip2. So you could take it apart step by step, like this:
bunzip2 thefile.tar.bz2
tar -xf thefile.tar
A .tbz is the same as .tar.bz2, just as a .tgz is the same as a .tar.gz.

If you had a plain thisfile.bz2 file or thisfile.gz file, you'd do one of these, respectively:
bunzip2 thisfile.bz2
gunzip thisfile.gz

There's also an unzip command, for those pesky Windows people who insist on using .zip files. Also, dotpups are actually inside a zipfile, so unzip something.pup will let you at the contents, which usually consist of a script, an md5sum, and a dotpup.tar.gz file.

[muggins]

i thought i'd add that often, when you dload a file.tar.bz2, for some inexplicable reason, (something to do with servers not recognising the bz2 format?), it ends up as file.tar.tar. if this happens, just renaming it to file.tar.bz2 and then extract it as above.

[Scoticus]

Many thanks all.

That was a great assist. I appreciate your advice as the learning curve is looking more like a roller coaster at the moment. Every time I feel that I am getting there then down I go again.

Will add this to my idiots guide for future reference

Ian