Extracting a *.tar.bz2 file?

Question

I always used to use this command to extract files from a bzip2 tar ball:

tar xjvf file.tar.bz2

But right now on Ubuntu 14.04, I get this error:

tar: Conflicting compression options
Try 'tar --help' or 'tar --usage' for more information.

Did something change or is this a bug?

EDIT: I think there might be a bug. I just tried running it through bunzip2 first, and then extracting everything from the resulting tar ball, and got this:

$ tar xvf file.tar
tar (child): pbzip2: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

EDIT2: This is what I get after installing pbzip2:

$ tar xf file.tar
pbzip2: producer_decompress: *ERROR: when reading bzip2 input stream
Terminator thread: premature exit requested - quitting...
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Are you sure someone hasn't aliased `tar` to `tar xz` or something like that? — David Schwartz, Aug 25 '14 at 02:08
Pretty certain. I'm pretty paranoid about access on my machine, so it's rather locked down, but I ran `unalias tar` and got `bash: unalias: tar: not found` just to sure. — supercheetah, Aug 25 '14 at 02:14
If the file were created with `-z`, you would get `bzip2: (stdin) is not a bzip2 file` — Bert, Aug 25 '14 at 02:32
Notice that I got that error after running the original file through `bunzip2` and then running `tar xvf`, so the error doesn't even make sense. — supercheetah, Aug 25 '14 at 02:34
The `pbzip2: cannot exec: no such file or directory` leads me to ask if bzip2 is even installed? `whereis bzip2` If it is not found, `sudo apt-get install bzip2` — Bert, Aug 25 '14 at 02:35

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 25 '14 at 01:54

8

You must be combining the -z and -j compression options. The first uses gzip the second uses bzip. The command tar xjvf will not give you that error.

answered Aug 25 '14 at 01:54

Bert

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I promise I'm not. The command I use is exactly as I've shown it here. – supercheetah Aug 25 '14 at 01:56
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What does the command `file file.tar.bz2` return? – Bert Aug 25 '14 at 02:31
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`file file.tar.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k` – supercheetah Aug 25 '14 at 02:35

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 25 '14 at 13:30

2

My solution was to install bsdtar. I don't know why the regular tar wasn't working, but I'm going to file a bug report.

answered Aug 25 '14 at 13:30

supercheetah

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '16 at 00:33

0

install bzip2 and then it should be working. for example in debian/ubuntu

sudo apt-get install bzip2

or in gentoo

emerge bzip2

answered Jan 21 '16 at 00:33

Chenming Zhang

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Extracting a *.tar.bz2 file?

3 Answers3