getting tired of guessing tar flags in 2013?

_README.md

Looks familiar?

Worry no more! Use extract and prosper!

Usage

$ extract [FILES]

Installation

First method

Place it in your $PATH.

Second method

Do you trust me? You should, I'm a nice guy.

$ curl -fsSL https://gist.github.com/shime/5908634/raw/install | bash -e

If you get curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 462), it means you don't have write permissions to /usr/local/bin.

This will make it go away:

$ !!:s/bash/sudo bash

Zsh doesn't play really nice with that space, just paste this if it fails:

$ curl -fsSL https://gist.github.com/shime/5908634/raw/install | sudo bash -e

Enjoy!

extract

#! /usr/bin/env bash

declare -A EXTENSION_DICT=( [tar.xz]="kxJf" [txz]="kxJf" [tar.bz2]="kxjf"
			    [tar.bz]="kxjf" [tar.gz]="kxzf"
                            [tgz]="kxzf" [tbz]="kxjf"
                            [tbz2]="kxjf" [tb2]="kxjf" )

function extract_archive(){
  read file extension <<<$(echo $1 $2)
  echo "extracting $file to ${file%$extension}"
  eval "tar ${EXTENSION_DICT[$extension]} $file"
}

for file in $*
do
  case "$file" in 
    *tar.xz)
      extract_archive $file "tar.xz"
      ;;

    *tar.bz2)
      extract_archive $file "tar.bz2"
      ;;

    *tar.bz)
      extract_archive $file "tar.bz"
      ;;

    *tar.gz)
      extract_archive $file "tar.gz"
      ;;

    *tgz)
      extract_archive $file "tgz"
      ;;

    *tbz)
      extract_archive $file "tbz"
      ;;

    *tbz2)
      extract_archive $file "tbz2"
      ;;

    *tb2)
      extract_archive $file "tb2"
      ;;

    *txz)
      extract_archive $file "txz"
      ;;

    *)
      echo "Sorry, unrecognized file format."
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
done

install

curl -fsSL https://gist.github.com/shime/5908634/raw/extract -o /usr/local/bin/extract

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/extract

Nice one! One suggestion, you also see tbz, .tgz, txz around the web.

Found this via coderwall. I have a similar function for the fish shell: https://github.com/dideler/dotfiles/blob/master/functions/extract.fish

Thanks for sharing, @dideler.

@MindTooth, thanks for the tip! I've updated the script and added a bunch of extensions and the error message.

Put this in your .bashrc/.bash_profile/.zshrc/.whateverrc to be able to extract using just x archive.tar.gz.

alias x="extract";

Thank you!

Sweet little script, not sure if you just didn't want to do it or what, but I am going to see if adding other compression types in to the script will work too. Would love for it to include unzip.

When I run it the file it says it is saving as is not the exact name the archive is saved as.

Very helpful! Thanks so much!