How to delete a tar file after I gzip it?

Question

I am creating a tar file and then I am gzipping the tar file. So I am getting a .tgz file and now I want to delete the previous tar file.

${gzipExe} -f --rsyncable $tarname.TAR --stdout >> $tarname.TGZ

Answer 1

I usually zip the file at the same time by using the 'z' parameter with the tar command:

tar czvf allmyfiles.tar.gz *

The above command creates a new archive file called allmyfiles.tar.gz that contains all the files in the current folder, and zips it.

Otherwise, just delete the .tar file with the next command:

$rm $tarname.TAR

Note that .tar.gz is more commonly used than .tgz.

Answer 2

You have a couple of options. Assuming you need that --rsyncable option:

• Compress and tar in one step (without an intermediate tar file):

REM I think you are on Windows so...
set GZIP=--rsyncable
tar czf file.tar.gz files

• Pipe the output of tar into gzip (without an intermediate tar file)

tar c files | gzip --rsyncable > file.tar.gz

• Archive and compress in two steps.

tar -cf file.tar files
gzip -f --rsyncable file.tar

If you simply run gzip file.tar instead of gzip --stdout file.tar > file.tar.gz gzip will delete the tar file for you.

Also note that using gzip --stdout file.tar >> file.tar.gz as in your question will actually append the new gziped contents to file.tar.gz which is probably not what you want.