untar specific directory tar tvf filename.tar gives me: -rwxrwxrwx 0/0 544795 2010-03-15 12:49 35 WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/bloggingstream.zip -rwxrwxrwx 0/0 1659095 2010-03-15 12:51 35 WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/groovyblog.zip -rwxrwxrwx 0/0 835642 2010-03-15 12:51 35 WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/myweblog.zip Now if I try to extract only one specified file from `.tar` archive, like so: tar x "WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/bloggingstream.zip" -f filename.tar I get the following error: tar: WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/bloggingstream.zip: Not found in archive tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors How is that possible, when that path exists?

The `35` is part of the filename, so you should try:


tar x "35 WOO WORDPRESS THEMES/bloggingstream.zip" -f filename.tar


In case of "special character" problems, it is often better to try and extract everything from a `.tar` file (unless space constraints prohibit that) and delete files and/or directories that are not needed.