.\" @(#)tar.1 1.11.1 93/19/22 PJV; .TH TAR 1 "15 May 2006" .SH NAME tar \- The GNU version of the tar archiving utility .SH SYNOPSIS .B tar [ .B \- ] .B A \-\-catenate \-\-concatenate \||\| c \-\-create \||\| d \-\-diff \-\-compare \||\| \-\-delete \||\| r \-\-append \||\| t \-\-list \||\| u \-\-update \||\| x \-\-extract \-\-get .I [ options ] .I pathname [ pathname ... ] .SH DESCRIPTION .LP This manual page documents the GNU version of .B tar , an archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as a .IR tarfile. A .IR tarfile may be made on a tape drive, however, it is also common to write a .IR tarfile to a normal file. The first argument to .B tar must be one of the options: .BR Acdrtux , followed by any optional functions. The final arguments to .B tar are the names of the files or directories which should be archived. The use of a directory name always implies that the subdirectories below should be included in the archive. .SH EXAMPLES .TP .B tar \-xvvf foo.tar extract foo.tar .TP .B tar \-xvvzf foo.tar.gz extract gzipped foo.tar.gz .TP .B tar \-cvvf foo.tar foo/ tar contents of folder foo in foo.tar .SH "FUNCTION LETTERS" .TP .B One of the following options must be used: .TP .B \-A, \-\-catenate, \-\-concatenate append tar files to an archive .TP .B \-c, \-\-create create a new archive .TP .B \-d, \-\-diff, \-\-compare find differences between archive and file system .TP .B \-\-delete delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!) .TP .B \-r, \-\-append append files to the end of an archive .TP .B \-t, \-\-list list the contents of an archive .TP .B \-u, \-\-update only append files that are newer than copy in archive .TP .B \-x, \-\-extract, \-\-get extract files from an archive .SH "OTHER OPTIONS" .TP .B \-\-allow\-name\-mangling re-enable handling of GNUTYPE_NAMES which is now disabled by default .TP .B \-\-anchored force exclusion patterns to match initial subsequences .TP .B \-\-atime\-preserve don't change access times on dumped files .TP .B \-b, \-\-blocking\-factor N use record size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20) .TP .B \-B, \-\-read\-full\-records reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes) .TP .B \-\-backup[\=TYPE] back up files instead of overwriting (TYPE=numbered, existing, simple) .TP .B \-C, \-\-directory DIR change to directory DIR .TP .B \-\-checkpoint print periodic checkpoints .TP .B \-\-exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN .TP .B \-f, \-\-file [HOSTNAME:]F use archive file or device F (default "\-", meaning stdin/stdout) .TP .B \-F, \-\-info\-script F, \-\-new\-volume\-script F run script at end of each tape (implies \-M) .TP .B \-\-force\-local archive file is local even if it has a colon .TP .B \-G, \-\-incremental create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup .TP .B \-g, \-\-listed\-incremental F create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup .TP .B \-\-group G set group to G while adding files .TP .B \-h, \-\-dereference don't dump symlinks; dump the files they point to .TP .B \-\-help print help message .TP .B \-i, \-\-ignore\-zeros ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF) .TP .B \-\-ignore\-case ignore case when excluding files .TP .B \-\-ignore\-failed\-read don't exit with non-zero status on unreadable files .TP .B \-j, \-\-bzip2 filter archive through bzip2, use to decompress .bz2 files. WARNING: some previous versions of tar used option \-I to filter through bzip2. When writing scripts, use \-\-bzip2 instead of \-j so that both older and newer tar versions will work. .TP .B \-k, \-\-keep\-old\-files keep existing files; don't overwrite them from archive .TP .B \-K, \-\-starting\-file F begin at file F in the archive .TP .B \-l, \-\-check\-links print a message if not all links are dumped .TP .B \-L, \-\-tape\-length N change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes .TP .B \-m, \-\-touch don't extract file modified time .TP .B \-M, \-\-multi\-volume create/list/extract multi-volume archive .TP .B \-\-mode M set permissions to M while adding files .TP .B \-N, \-\-after\-date DATE, \-\-newer DATE only store files newer than DATE .TP .B \-\-newer\-mtime DATE only store files whose contents have changed after DATE .TP .B \-\-no\-anchored allow exclusion patterns to match any substring (the default) .TP .B \-\-no\-ignore\-case match patterns case sensitively (the default) .TP .B \-\-no\-recursion do not recurse into subdirectories .TP .B \-o, \-\-no\-same\-owner extract files with owner set to current user (the default for non-root users) .TP .B \-\-no\-same\-permissions apply umask to extracted files (the default for non-root users) .TP .B \-\-no\-wildcards do not use wildcards when excluding files .TP .B \-\-no\-wildcards\-match\-slash don't let wildcards match "/" when excluding files .TP .B \-\-null for \-T, use "NUL" instead of newline as filename terminator .TP .B \-\-numeric\-owner always use numbers for user/group names .TP .B \-\-old\-archive, \-\-portability write a V7 format archive, rather than ANSI format. These options are deprecated, please use .B \-\-format\=v7 instead. .TP .B \-\-one\-file\-system stay in local file system when creating an archive .TP .B \-\-owner O set owner to O while adding files .TP .B \-O, \-\-to\-stdout extract files to standard output .TP .B \-p, \-\-same\-permissions, \-\-preserve\-permissions ignore umask when extracting files (the default for root) .TP .B \-P, \-\-absolute\-names don't strip leading `/'s from file names .TP .B \-\-posix create POSIX compliant archive. This option is deprecated, please use .B \-\-format\=posix instead. .TP .B \-\-preserve like \-p \-s .TP .B \-R, \-\-block\-number show block number within archive with each message .TP .B \-\-record\-size SIZE use SIZE bytes per record .TP .B \-\-recursion recurse into directories (the default) .TP .B \-\-recursive\-unlink remove existing directories before extracting directories of the same name .TP .B \-\-remove\-files remove files after adding them to the archive .TP .B \-\-rsh\-command=CMD Use remote COMMAND instead of `rsh'. This option exists so that people who use something other than the standard `rsh' (e.g., a Kerberized `rsh') can access a remote device. .TP .B \-S, \-\-sparse handle sparse files efficiently .TP .B \-s, \-\-same\-order, \-\-preserve\-order list of names to extract is sorted to match archive .TP .B \-\-same\-owner extract files with owner as specified in archive (the default for root) .TP .B \-\-show\-omitted\-dirs mention directories that are being skipped over .TP .B \-\-suffix SUFFIX append SUFFIX to make backup files (default ~) .TP .B \-T, \-\-files\-from F get names to extract or archive from file F .TP .B \-\-totals display total bytes written after creating an archive .TP .B \-U, \-\-unlink\-first unlink & recreate files instead of overwriting .TP .B \-\-use\-compress\-program PROG filter the archive through PROG (which must accept \-d) .TP .B \-v, \-\-verbose verbosely list files processed .TP .B \-V, \-\-label NAME create archive with volume name NAME .TP .B \-\-version print tar program version number .TP .B \-\-volno\-file F keep track of current volume (of a multi-volume archive) in F .TP .B \-w, \-\-interactive, \-\-confirmation ask for confirmation for every action .TP .B \-W, \-\-verify attempt to verify the archive after writing it .TP .B \-\-wildcards use wildcards when excluding files (the default) .TP .B \-\-wildcards\-match\-slash allow wildcards to match "/" (the default) .TP .B \-X, \-\-exclude\-from=FILE exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE .TP .B \-Z, \-\-compress, \-\-uncompress filter the archive through compress .TP .B \-z, \-\-gzip, \-\-gunzip, \-\-ungzip filter the archive through gzip .TP .B \-[0\-7][lmh] specify drive and density .SH BUGS .LP The GNU folks, in general, abhor man pages, and create info documents instead. Unfortunately, the info document describing tar is licensed under the GFDL with invariant cover texts, which violates the Debian Free Software Guidelines. As a result, the info documentation for tar is not included in the Debian package. If you want to read the complete documentation for GNU tar, please refer to the online version at . This man page was created for the Debian distribution. It does not describe all of the functionality of tar, and it is often out of date. Patches to improve the coverage and/or accuracy of this man page are appreciated, and should be filed as wishlist severity bugs against the Debian tar package, not submitted to the GNU tar maintainers.