How to delete files by filetype from an existing tar archive

Deletes files by filetype from an existing tar archive.

You can use this short tar command.

              
                  tar --exclude 'files/**/*.min.*' -cvf --file temp.tar @files.tar && rm files.tar && mv temp.tar files.tar
              
          

Or this more verbose tar command.

              
                  tar --exclude 'files/**/*.min.*' --create --verbose --file temp.tar @files.tar && rm files.tar && mv temp.tar files.tar
              
          

What's heppening here?

We want to remove the minified files (*.min.*) from files.tar. Whereas some tar implementations support the --delete option, for those that don't (Mac OS, for sure), here's how this works:

1. Create a new tar archive temp.tar with the contents of files.tar, excluding files with a *.min.* extension.
2. Remove the original tar archive.
3. Rename the new temp archive to the name of the original.

Note: Because we're deleting the original tar file, do ensure to take a backup before you do this.

Options explained

1. --exclude tells tar not to process files or directories that match the specified pattern
2. u or --update tells tar to add to the archive if the modification time is newer than in the archive
3. v or --verbosetells tar to produce verbose output
4. f or --filetells tar that the next parameter will be the tar file to create, extract, append to, list, etc.

More commands to update tar archives

• Update a tar archive wirh new or changed files
• Delete a file from an existing tar archive