How to compare the content of a tarball with a folder

Question

How can I compare a tar file (already compressed) of the original folder with the original folder?

First I created archive file using

tar -         


        

Answer 1

I recently needed a better compare than what "tar --diff" produced so I made this short script:

#!/bin/bash
tar tf "$1" | while read ; do 
  if [ "${REPLY%/}" = "$REPLY" ] ; then 
    tar xOf "$1" "$REPLY" | diff -u - "$REPLY" 
  fi
done