What is difference between root and base directory?

Question

I am trying to use shutils.py , make_archive function.
here: https://docs.python.org/2/library/shutil.html#archiving-operations
but I can't understand the difference between root_dir and base_dir.
Here's a simple code using make_archive:

#!user/bin/python
from os import path
from os import curdir
from shutil import make_archive
# Setting current Directory
current = path.realpath(curdir)
# Now Compressing
make_archive("Backup", "gztar", current)

This will create an archive named Backup.tar.gz which contains a . Directory inside it. I don't want the . directory but the whole thing inside in the archive.

Answer 1

Let's consider following dir structure:

/home/apast/git/web/tornado.py
/home/apast/git/web/setup.py

/home/apast/git/core/service.py

/home/apast/git/mobile/gui.py
/home/apast/git/mobile/restfulapi.py

We will try two snippets to clarify examples: 1. Defining base_dir 2. Without defined base_dir

1. Defining base_dir, we specify which directory we will include on our file:

   from shutil import make_archive
   root_dir = "/home/apast/git/"
   
   make_archive(base_name="/tmp/outputfile",
                format="gztar",
                root_dir=root_dir,
                base_dir="web")
   

   This code will generate a file called /tmp/outputfile.tar.gz with following struct:

   web/tornado.py
   web/setup.py
   

2. Running without base_dir, like following:

   from shutil import make_archive
   
   root_dir = "/home/apast/git/"
   
   make_archive(base_name="/tmp/outputfile",
                format="gztar",
                root_dir=root_dir)
   

   It will product a file containing:

   web/tornado.py
   web/setup.py
   core/service.py
   mobile/gui.py
   mobile/restfulapi.py
   

To define specific folders, maybe it will be necessary use some other technique, like gzip lib directly.

Answer 2

cd in the root_dir... then tar the base_dir... the docs makes me confuse too, read the code, that will make u clear.