[solved] Can no longer untar AUR packages with tar xvf /directory/

Question

For about a year now I've used this line of code from my .bash_aliases file to untar files from their source directory to the one I am currently CDed in at that moment: 
alias tarx='tar xvf' # extracts files from a tarball using tar [e]x[tract] v[erbose] f[orced]
This alias failed to work a few weeks ago for some unknown reason and now spits out this error:
tarx /media/aur/srcpackages/atom-editor.tar.gz ./
tar: .: Not found in archive
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
Why on earth would this suddenly stop working.  I haven't changed my .bashrc file apart from some small comments but here it is in case I'm totally out of it:
# ~/.bashrc
# This file is sourced by all *interactive* bash shells on startup, #
# including some apparently interactive shells such as scp and rcp #
# that can't tolerate any output. So make sure this doesn't display #
# anything or bad things will happen ! #
# If not running interactively, don't do anything #
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return
# If the connection to the system is a remote connection 'ssh' will be #
## appended to the prompt. Otherwise the prompt will be displayed normally #
# See: remote.colourful.prompt_how-to on /media/lynwyn/networking/ssh #
# Default prompt from the above-named document: #
# export PS1='\[\e[0;31m\]\u@\h:\w${text}$\[\e[m\]' # # #
if [ -n "$SSH_CLIENT" ]; then text=":ssh:"
fi
# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi
### [User Prompts]
### White Yunzi
export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]: \[\e[1;92m\]\W\[\e[0;37m\] :\[\e[m\] \[\e[0;37m\]'
#### Silver Yunzi
#export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]: \[\e[1;94m\]\W\[\e[0;37m\] :\[\e[m\] \[\e[0;37m\]'
### Pink Yunzi
#export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]: \[\e[1;95m\]\W\[\e[0;37m\] :\[\e[m\] \[\e[1;95m\]'
### [Root Prompts]
### White Yunzi Root
#export PS1='\[\e[1;37m\]:\[\e[1;92m\]\u\[\e[1;37m\]:\[\e[1;92m\]\W\[\e[1;37m\]:\[\e[m\] \[\e[0;37m\]'
### Silver Yunzi Root
#export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[1;94m\]\u\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[1;94m\]\W\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[m\]\[\e[0;37m\]'
### Pink Yunzi Root
#export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[1;95m\]\u\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[1;95m\]\W\[\e[0;37m\]:\[\e[m\] \[\e[0;37\]'
### * BASH options * ###
### Last edited January 2014 by H.L.
# Bash won't get SIGWINCH if another process is in the foreground.
# Enable checkwinsize so that bash will check the terminal size when
# it regains control.
# [check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.]
# http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/bash/FAQ (E11)
shopt -s checkwinsize
# automatically prepend cd when entering just a path in the shell
shopt -s autocd
# Enable history appending instead of overwriting.
shopt -s histappend
# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=10000
HISTFILESIZE=20000
## erase duplicate entries in your history file
## and force Bash History to ignorespace
export HISTCONTROL=erasedups:ignorespace
# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
#if [ -z "$arch_chroot" ] && [ -r /etc/arch_chroot ]; then
# debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/arch_chroot)
#fi
# make "less" more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"
# TMUX
# Put this this snippet BEFORE the aliases in .bashrc.
# This code starts TMUX with only one session (unless you start some manually), on login;
# it will try to attach to a currently running session.
# If there isn't a currently running session then TMUX will create one.
# if which tmux 2>&1 >/dev/null; then
# if not inside a tmux session, and if no session is started start a new session
# test -z "$TMUX" && (tmux attach || tmux new-session)
# fi
# environment variables using gedit and nano
export EDITOR="$(if [[ -n $DISPLAY ]]; then echo 'gedit'; else echo 'nano'; fi)"
### Coloured man pages with explanations of colours in comments
# Note to self: all of the colour & escape statements work ONLY by using double quote marks, e.g. " ... "
## Coloured man pages with explanations of colours in comments
# 67: Primary colour for program names is Dark Green [old 80's CRT green!]
# 68: Optional arguments and/or separate options for arguments is Bright Green
# 69: Text Reset
# 70: Text Reset
# 71: man page info bottom of page is Dark Red on Black background (net effect is transparent background with red writing)
# 72: Text Reset
# 73: References to other programs (and their respective man page(s)) are Bright Yellow [good neutral yellow]
man() {
env LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$(printf "\e[1;31m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_md=$(printf "\e[1;31m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_me=$(printf "\e[0m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_se=$(printf "\e[0m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_so=$(printf "\e[1;44;33m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$(printf "\e[0m") \
LESS_TERMCAP_us=$(printf "\e[1;32m") \
man "$@"
## To get a skin of your choice loaded instead of mc's default
## skin, you might consider the following solution:
## Multi-User: Create an alias for mc in your ~/.bashrc, like:
if [ $TERM = "screen-256color" ]; then
if [ $USER = "root" ]; then
myMCSkin="modarcon16root-defbg"
else
myMCSkin="modarcon16-defbg"
fi
alias mc='mc --skin $myMCSkin'
alias mcedit="mcedit --skin $myMCSkin"
alias mcview="mcview --skin $myMCSkin"
alias mcdiff="mcdiff --skin $myMCSkin"
fi
Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-07-09 04:31:06)

Answer 1

I seem to have a larger problem on my desktop machine.  When I try to untar stuff on that one it creates a .cache directory for some weird reason and populates it with, I think, cached files from my home directory.  It ends up having firefox, mc and other cached files in the new directory and then tar just errors out with:
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Very odd behaviour and I'm assuming some config file somewhere is responsible for this behaviour.  But where else can I look apart from .bashrc? 
@ids1024, I'll do what you've what you suggested on my netbook later today and record the information to post afterward.
[edit] Here are the contents of that .cache directory, if it helps:
dconf event-sound-cache.tdb.silver_yunzi.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu event-sound-cache.tdb.tengen.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu fontconfig mc dmenu_run
event-sound-cache.tdb.silveryunzi.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu event-sound-cache.tdb.white_yunzi.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu gstreamer-1.0 mozilla
Last edited by MoonSwan (2014-06-28 19:57:10)