How do I extract files without folder structure using tar
Based on @ford
's answer. This one will extract it to the my_dirname folder. So that we can properly clear the empty folders without affected currently existing files.
tar xzf images.tgz --transform='s/.*\///' -C my_dirname
find my_dirname -type d -empty -delete
This is almost possible with tar alone, using the --transform flag, except that there's no way to delete the left over directories as far as I can tell.
This will flatten the entire archive:
tar xzf images.tgz --transform='s/.*\///'
The output will be
folder1/
folder2/
folder3/
img.gif
img2.gif
img3.gif
You will then need to delete the directories with another command, unfortunately.
Check the tar version e.g.
$ tar --version
If version is >= than tar-1.14.90 use --strip-components
tar xvzf web.dirs.tar.gz -C /srv/www --strip-components 2
else use --strip-path
tar xvzf web.dirs.tar.gz -C /srv/www --strip-path 2
You can use the --strip-components option of tar.
--strip-components count (x mode only) Remove the specified number of leading path ele- ments. Pathnames with fewer elements will be silently skipped. Note that the pathname is edited after checking inclusion/exclu- sion patterns but before security checks.
I create a tar file with a similar structure to yours:
$tar -tf tarfolder.tar
tarfolder/
tarfolder/file.a
tarfolder/file.b
$ls -la file.*
ls: file.*: No such file or directory
Then extracted by doing:
$tar -xf tarfolder.tar --strip-components 1
$ls -la file.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 ericgorr wheel 0 Jan 12 12:33 file.a
-rw-r--r-- 1 ericgorr wheel 0 Jan 12 12:33 file.b