2

I have a tar.gz archive that has been split apart like so -

files.tar.gz.part-aa.gz
...
...
...
files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz

I combine them using the cat command -

cat files* > files.tar.gz This combines the files into a 16 GB tar.gz file (which is expected)

If I try to run tar -zxf files.tar.gz I get the following error -

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: error is not recoverable: exiting now

If I check the status of the file, I get this output -

file files.tar.gz then the output I get is weird - it says - files.tar.gz: data

Any ideas?

EDIT -

I ran some of the commands that you guys were mentioning I should try. Here are the results -

Ran the following commands on several different file parts. As you will see, the output is different for some file parts.

Command Run: gunzip files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz
Output/Response: gzip: filestar.gz.part-ap.gz: not in gzip format

Command Run: file files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz
Output/Response: files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz: data

Command Run: gzip -d files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz
Output/Response: gzip: files.tar.gz.part-ap.gz: not in gzip format

Command Run: file files.tar.gz.part-ah.gz
Output/Response: files.tar.gz.part-ah.gz: 8086 relocatable (Microsoft)

Command Run: file files.tar.gz.part-ak.gz
Output/Response: files.tar.gz.part-ak.gz: data

Thanks.

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4
  • 2
    The glob could theoratically match the output too and that could cause problems. Have you tried cat files.tar.gz.part-* > files.tar.gz ?
    – PSkocik
    Aug 23 '16 at 14:31
  • What does file files.tar.gz.part-aa.gz say?
    – Stephen Kitt
    Aug 23 '16 at 20:56
  • Did you create a tar file, compress it, split it, then compress the split files? That's my guess, based on files.tar.gz.part-aa.gz maybe gzip cowardly refused to compress the already compressed split files?
    – Jeff Schaller ♦
    Aug 24 '16 at 2:38
  • Question has been updated with the output
    – user1210304
    Aug 24 '16 at 15:32
2

Intepreting the file extensions, it looks like these are compressed portions of a compressed archive; try this:

 gunzip files.tar.gz.part-??.gz
 cat files.tar.gz.part-?? > files.tar.gz
 tar xf files.tar.gz
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2
  • When I try to gunzip any of the files, I get the following error - gunzip files.* gzip: files.tar.gz.part-aa.gz: not in gzip format gzip: files.tar.gz.part-ab.gz: not in gzip format etc.
    – user1210304
    Aug 23 '16 at 20:28
  • I updated the question with the outputs of what you suggested.
    – user1210304
    Aug 24 '16 at 15:30

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