tar -x without clobbering directories

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

"Greg Rundlett (freephile)" <greg at freephile.com> writes:
>
> p.s. I read the tar man page (more than once), and those options
> aren't listed. There is this BUG statement at the bottom:
> 
> BUGS
>        The GNU folks, in general, abhor man pages, and create info
> documents instead.  Unfortunately, the info document describing tar is
> licensed under the GFDL with invariant cover texts, which violates the
> Debian  Free  Software Guidelines.  As a result, the info
> documentation for tar is not included in the Debian package.

This is part of the truth; Debian *does* actually provide the GFDL'd
manuals in *separate* packages in the non-free section (and, since
Ubuntu is more lax about licensing, the manuals are even in Ubuntu's
*main* section).

In either case (assuming you have `non-free' enabled if you're using
Debian proper), just:

       apt-get install tar-doc

-- 
Don't be afraid to ask (Lf.((Lx.xx) (Lr.f(rr)))).