Re: Extracting indiviual files or directories from XYZ.tar.xz - Possible?

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Richard Owlett wrote:
> Compression "efficiency" [better term??] is not an issue as I'll be only be
> dealing with a very small portion of the contents of XYZ.tar.xz .

The speed of decompression can become important if the tar archive is
large.
The archive is compressed as a whole. So the reading program has to
decompress the archive from its start at least up to the end of the
last desired file.

Regardless of compression, tar is not very efficient when it comes to
picking files from the archive. If the storage medium is slow, then it
may last quite some time until the desired files are encountered while
reading the archive from its start. Even if the archive is not
compressed.
That's why i switched away from tar and afio archives about 15 years
ago.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas