Re: tar messages displayed after archiving is completed

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

> But instead of displaying
> something like "operation completed", tar displayed something close to
> this message: "removing the / from members" which made me think the
> operation has failed.

Not everything a program (any program, not only tar) displays on the
standard error means an error.  If tar fails to perform the requested
operation, it clearly indicates the fact in its last message, which will
be in such case:

  tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

The message you are referring to and the ways to avoid it are discussed
in detail in the Tar Manual, section 6.10.2, "Absolute File Names".
It is available online at:

  https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/absolute.html

Regards,
Sergey