stripcomponents

Stripcomponents refers to the operation of removing a specified number of leading directory components from the paths of archive members during extraction or processing. It is commonly used in data archiving tools to flatten directory structures or to ensure files land in a controlled location within the destination directory. The concept is most visible in tar-based workflows, where an option or parameter allows a user to strip leading components from every member’s path.

In practice, a member with path a/b/c.txt becomes b/c.txt if stripcomponents is set to 1, or c.txt if the value is 2, and so on. If a member’s path has fewer components than the requested stripping amount, the resulting path may be empty; different tools handle this case differently, ranging from extracting to the destination root to skipping such entries. The exact behavior can vary between formats and implementations, so users should consult the specific tool’s documentation.

Security considerations are important when using stripcomponents. While stripping can help avoid creating unnecessary nested directories, it does not by itself guarantee safety against path traversal or extraction outside the target directory. It is common to pair path stripping with additional validation and sanitization of archive contents and destination paths.

In software libraries, stripcomponents may be exposed as a parameter or option in archive extraction APIs. The underlying implementation and semantics can differ across languages and archive formats, so developers should verify the exact behavior in the chosen tool or library. See also tar, archive extraction, and path sanitization.