How to read a tarball

[Jeff Vian]

On Wed, 2006-05-03 at 00:36 +0800, Stephen Liu wrote:
> Hi Ed,
> 
> > Ahhh...  filename.bz2 is a compressed "filename".  It probably isn't
> > a
> > tar file or text file.  Not every file is "readable" in plain text.
> 
> Noted with tks.
> 
> Following was my finding;
> 
> On clicking the .bz2 tarball on File-Manager "Ark" will start with the
> .bz2 tarball file on it.  Again clicking the .bz2 tarball there will
> start another "Ark" window with all files/directories in decompressed
> state but without actually decompressed.  High-light a file/directory
> on the second window and drag-and-drop it on File-Manager will copy the
> file/directory there decompressed.
> 
If you double click the tarball file-roller will open up to
view/decompress/etc the contained files.  It behaves similarly to winzip
and works well for me.

I believe this is what you refer to as Ark.

> The above is what I need, to copy files/directories from .bz2 tarball
> for editing without decompressing the tarball.
> 
> My goal is to transfer data between computers on CD/DVD.  After burning
> their properties change but I need to retain their original so I have
> to "tar -jcpf tarball.bz2" creating a compressed tarball.  Then I get
> it burned on CD/DVD.
> 
> I'm also searching another alternative.  Any suggestion?  TIA
> 
> Furthermore I don't know whether I can add an edited file/directory
> back to .bz2 tarball again replacing the old one.  Some compression
> will allow doing this way.
> 
> B.R.
> SL 
>