Extract tar the tar.bz2 file error - linux

Question

I tried to extract the tar.bz2 file in Fedora 17 OS. I used the command:
# tar -xvjf myfile.tar.bz2
I received this error message:
tar (child):bzip2: Cannot exec :Nosuch of file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exitng now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar:Error is not recoverable: exitng now
How can I resolve this?

Answer 1

Ensure that you have the bzip2 and bzip2-libs RPMs installed.
It looks like the tar command defers to the bzip2 command which the bzip2 RPM provides (/usr/bin/bzip2). In your case, tar specifically tries to call bzip2 -d to decompress the bzipped archive.
Also, a couple of tips:
The -v option is not necessary. It just gives verbose output, which means that it lists the files that were extracted from the archive. Most of the time this prints useless data to your terminal.
As #Skynet said, it is helpful to run the file command on your bzip2 archive to ensure that it is actually in bzip2 format.
As #Odin said, it appears that you don't need to specify the -j option when extracting the archive, as the tar command seems to be smart enough to figure this out.

Answer 2

I solved it using:
aptitude install bzip2

Answer 3

I found the same error as you in CentOS 7. It looks like this:
tar -jxvf target_gile.tar.bz2
<br>tar (child): bzip2: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
<br>tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
<br>tar: Child returned status 2
<br>tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Then I installed bzip2 package : yum install bzip2
After that, I extracted again using this command: tar -jxvf target_gile.tar.bz2

Answer 4

You may need to install the bzip2 on your system.
yum -y install bzip2
I got the same problem . I have two server.
A: CentOS 7.6 Min install
B: Fedora 29 Workstation
On B:create a tarball with:
tar -jcvf XXX.tar.bz2 /Path_to_my_dir
Then scp this tarball to A server to decrompress it, but when I want to decompression it I got the same error.Finally it turns out that, tar could work with bzip2 but you have to install it first .

Answer 5

This worked for my file:
binutils-2.15.tar.bz2 (Found at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/)
bunzip2 your-tar-file.tar.bz2
Your file now looks like this:
your-tar-file.tar
tar xvf your-tar-file.tar
File will finish extracting

Answer 6

First you need to install lbzip2 package:
yum install lbzip2
then untar the file
tar file.tar.bz2
Regards

Answer 7

You can extract either tar.gz or tar.bz2 with this command:
tar -xvf ~/sometar.tar.bz2

Answer 8

this error come also if you use some wrong alias in your .bashrc/.zshrc as:
alias tar='tar -cf'
when you execute in terminal
$ tar -xf file.tar
it's been
$ tar -cf -xf file.tar
tar (child):bzip2: Cannot exec :Nosuch of file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exitng now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar:Error is not recoverable: exitng now
so, you should not use an alias for tar or do
$ unalias tar
$ tar -xf file.tar

Answer 9

For bz2 you need to execute like this,
tar -jxvf
Alternatively, you can also execute like this
bunzip2 myfile.tar.bz2
For more information you should check it,
tar --help
If in doubt, run file on the archive to make sure it actually is compressed in bz2 format.