Comment by gboudrias
8 years ago
By the way, at least for the ones I've tried, --extract now figures out the compression algorithm, so --use-compress-program is possibly redundant.
With the cryptic short options it's only one letter, but I find it makes it easier to remember a distinct "4-letter scrabble" for creation versus a "3 letter scrabble" for extraction.
(For the long options you save a lot of typing!)
tar wouldn't be able to figure out to use pixz instead of xz in this case just using implicit deduction.
I don't really type those options, but use some simple wrapper scripts :)
Something like pixzcompress / pixzextract. Scripts also take care to differentiate between directory and a single file.
If you're OK with wrapper scripts, take a look at dtrx[0]. It can extract many different formats, so assuming you have the tools already installed, extracting anything can be done with `dtrx <filename>`.
[0]: https://brettcsmith.org/2007/dtrx/
Interesting, but pixz is too new for it, plus it looks like it's using extension to determine the type, so it won't work for the same reason as above. The benefit of pixz is much faster compression / decompression.
There is also atool.
http://www.nongnu.org/atool/
Good to know, thanks! :)