In article <slrnekkfo5.fc9.stephane.chazelas@spam.is.invalid> ,
Stephane CHAZELAS <this.address@is.invalid> wrote:

> 2006-11-02, 12:44(-06), Todd H.:
> [...]
> >> > find test -newer last_backup -exec tar rvf backup.tar '{}' \;
> >> >
> >> > Where test = folder containg files
> >> > last_backup = specified file
> >> > backup.tar = new file
> >> >
> >> > It will work in Solaris, unfortunately the system i need to back up is
> >> > LINUX. I can get the 'find -newer last_backup' to work fine however the
> >> > -exec bit doesnt work, every file is tar'd instead of just the newer
> >> > ones.
> >> [...]
> >>
> >> If using GNU tar, add the --no-recursion option to tar.
> >>
> >> Alternatively, you may want to add "! -type d" to find.
> >
> > I've never used single ticks around the {} with a find -exec. Try it
> > without those and see if it becomes happy.
>
> That would make no difference. The single ticks are for the
> shell to tell it to take the {} characters litterally (which
> most shells do anyway already even without the '...').
>
> In both cases, find will be given an argument containing the two
> characters "{}".
>
> The problem the OP is having is that find will select the
> *directories* that are newer than the "last_backup" file. And
> GNU tar, when given a directory, will archive the directory plus
> every file it contains by default. Hence the --no-recursion to
> revert that default behavior.

That behavior is hardly specific to GNU tar. In fact, it's probably the
most common way that tar is used on most systems.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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