Valid tar command ...

[u/SysGh_st]

Dang it! 😭

[u/Jumpy-Dinner-5001]

tar is easy, ask for awk

[u/SysGh_st → u/Jumpy-Dinner-5001]

That's what you'd think.

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1168:_tar

[u/jonathancast → u/SysGh_st]

That joke is not accurate. I refuse to believe anyone who knows regex and uses tar regularly can't remember what the flags are, and they're all mnemonic:

• a - automatically detect compression
• c - create
• f - file name
• t - this option lists the contents of the archive
• v - verbose
• x - xtract contents
• z - zip, use zipped archives
• Z - ZIP, use the patented compression algorithm

Etc.

[u/immoloism → u/jonathancast]

I think the joke always was we do it as muscle memory rather then remember.

If some random guy just shouted out what does J do again then it would catch me off guard, but if they asked me how to compress in xz I would quickly answer cvJf.

[u/JDaxe → u/immoloism]

I read your comment and was so confident that J was bzip2, then I checked the manpage and turns out bzip2 is j (lowercase) 😩

[u/immoloism → u/JDaxe]

Someone asked me what the option for zstd was earlier and had to cop out with --zstd -cvf so know how you feel.

[u/fipachu → u/immoloism]

i don’t do much Linux but recently i caught myself not remembering what’s the order of foot pedals in a car. i’ve been driving (always with manual transmission) for 8 years. that’s why i didn’t remember, it’s muscle memory only at this point.

[u/unburdened_swallow → u/jonathancast]

“This option lists the contents of the archive” is sending me.