Re: input/output redirection with tar

[e-letter]

>> Readers,
>>
>> I tried without success the following command syntax
>>
>> tar --extract --file=/path/to/tarball<  /path/to/list/of/files.txt
>
> Your question is about tar and/or the shell, neither of which are part
> of coreutils.  You may have better results by asking your question on a
> more appropriate list.  That said...
>

Sorry; I have not read farther than the first paragraph of the home
page; in retrospect I suppose appropriate mailing lists should be
those for 'bash' and 'tar'.

>> Is there a reason why redirect does not work with tar command?
>
> If you want the contents of files.txt to be passed as command line
> arguments, then you need to use command substitution, not file redirection:
>
> tar --extract --file=/path/to/tarball $(cat /path/to/list/of/files.txt)
>

Thanks; for the benefit of other novices, information about 'command
substitution' is in the manual 'bash reference manual'.

>
> Or if you insist on using redirection, then use '-' as the --files-from
> argument to tell tar to read from stdin:
>
> tar --extract --file=/path/to/tarball --files-from=-
> </path/to/list/of/files.txt

Please, from where did you get the information about the use of the
dash (-) character in this context?