tar command examples (untested)

#Some tar ideas (not tested yet):

#If one has a subfolder then rather than:
tar --keep-directory-symlink -xf package.tar -C /
#**--one-top-level[=DIR] option might be able to be used insead of "-C /"
#one can do:
tar --keep-directory-symlink --transform='s%package-name/%%' -xf package.tar -C /
#See: https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_section/tar_51.html

#Files can also be excluded from a tar archive either by:
cpio -i  --nonmatching='metadata.asc' / < package.tar
# shell patters See: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/glob.3.html
tar --exclude=PATTERN -xf package.tar -C /

#One can put the exclude patterns in a file
tar --exclude-from=FILE -xf package.tar -C /

#If a tar archive is concatenated with metadata when one might be able to do sometihng like
tar --transform='s%package-name%%' -x \
  -f <(tar -x  --to-stdout --nonmatching='metadata.asc' -f package.pet.tar) \
  -C /
#or
tar -x --files-from <<<package-name package.tar -C /

#or

cpio -i  -E 'package-name/*' / < package.tar