Hi Steffen, > So it collects a list of files in a textfile, and then either > $tarxcmd = "tar -c -f - | $COMPRESSOR > $ar"; > or > $tarxcmd = "tar -r -f $ar >/dev/null";
With the second of these, $ar isn't a compressed file name, like foo.tar.gz? Which was used for the problem tar file? > and then > unless (open XARGS, "| xargs -0 $tarxcmd 2>>$MFFN") { So xargs may run tar more than once, and if $#{$listref} has been growing then perhaps it's tipped over from one invocation to two recently? > They are however part of the archive content, e.g.: > > ?130[steffen@wales x]$ tar -tf monthly-backup.tar | grep 'mail/2013.track' > ?1[steffen@wales x]$ grep 'mail/2013.track' monthly-backup.tar > Binary file monthly-backup.tar matches Is monthly-backup.tar the value of $ar above? Or have you manually decompressed it? Are you aware of this behaviour? $ (tar cf - foo; tar cf - bar) | tar tf - foo $ (tar cf - foo; tar cf - bar) | (tar tf -; tar tf -) foo bar $ (tar cf - foo; tar cf - bar) | gzip | tar tzf - foo $ Cheers, Ralph.