[ILUG] Interesting little libC functions & commands...

[Lars Hecking]

) 
> Using tar to move a dir from one location to another and retaining 
> user id's and premissions correctly, which cp -R will shag, i.e using
> a users home dir from one disk to another (which mv won't allow) as root
> without making an arse of the whole thing
> 
> ( cd /home/ ; tar -cvpf - username ) | ( cd /newhome ; tar -xvpf - )
 
 Three problems with this:

 1)  ( cd /home/ && tar -cvpf - username ) | ( cd /newhome && tar -xvpf - )
    is safer, in case the directories don't exist, or you mistype them.

 2) The 'p' flag only makes sense when extracting an archive.

 3) Specifying 'v' for both creating and extracting will print a nice
    mess to the screen ;)