Remove a grep output list of files from a tar archive

Question

I'm looking to remove files from a tar archive which match a regex pattern in their filename. My current process is:

tar -tf LC080330242019031901T1-SC20190606111327.tar | grep _b[1-9] |

Where I query the files in the tar. This gives the output:

LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b10.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b11.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b2.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b1.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b6.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b8.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b5.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b3.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b4.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b9.tif
LC08_L1TP_033024_20190319_20190325_01_T1_b7.tif

However I cannot for the life of me find the command to then remove this list of files from the tar file.

[tar](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/tar.1.html) has a `--delete` option. So it would be something in the vein of `tar -f --delete ` — Hunter McMillen, Jun 10 '19 at 14:06
@HunterMcMillen that's what I'm aiming to do, just not sure how to get the grep output to be — Harry Adams, Jun 10 '19 at 14:22
Piping the grep output to `--delete` didn't work for me either, but using `tar -tf test.tar | grep | xargs --replace=FILES tar -f test.tar --delete FILES` did. — Jose Fernando Lopez Fernandez, Jun 10 '19 at 14:34
@JoseFernandoLopezFernandez This worked perfectly for me. Write an answer and I'll checkmark it. — Harry Adams, Jun 10 '19 at 14:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '19 at 17:28

As I mentioned in the comments, using tar -tf test.tar | grep <regex> | xargs --replace=FILES tar -f test.tar --delete FILES worked for me as I was checking if I was able to do it in my local environment.

I wasn't sure why exactly xargs was necessary for the command to work, as I had originally also though calling tar with ouput from grep would work, but consulting the man pages, it turns out that's exactly what xargs is for: building and executing command line commands from standard input.

Most of my use had previously come from when I needed to process arguments one by one using xargs -n 1, but this was pretty interesting to learn.

Remove a grep output list of files from a tar archive

1 Answers1