Re: [UUG/MLUG] un-installing .tar'd apps

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Beware:

Even though you have changed to a default directory such as /usr/local
before untarring your tar file, tar can put files *anywhere* on your
system.  (e.g., If the tar file contains /etc/passwd and it is extracted
by roor, tar will write over your /etc/passwd file.)  Check the table of
contents of the tar file to see what is in it before you install it:

tar tf tarfile.tar | more

If it looks like every line begins with ./foo , or whatever, you're fine.  
If it's a long list of files, you can check to be sure as follows:

tar tf tarfile.tar | egrep -v '^\./foo'

That will return the path of every file that is to be installed in a
directory other than ./foo .  So if there is no output from that command,
you're fine.

Nearly all tar file software packages I've seen will unpack into a single
new directory within the current directory.  If that directory already
exists, the files will be written over files that are already there
(assuming you have permissions).  Some rare tar files require that you
create a directory to unpack into (or else the just spew the files into
the default directory), so it is definitely best to check first using
"tar tf".

Regards,

Mike

-- 
Michael B. Miller
University of Missouri--Columbia
http://taxa.psyc.missouri.edu/~mbmiller/