tar - Unix, Linux Command

NAME

tar - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility

SYNOPSIS

tar <operation> [options]

Operations:

[-]A --catenate --concatenate 
[-]c --create 
[-]d --diff --compare 
[-]r --append 
[-]t --list 
[-]u --update 
[-]x --extract --get 
--delete

Common Options:

-C, --directory DIR 
-f, --file F 
-j, --bzip2 
-p, --preserve-permissions 
-v, --verbose 
-z, --gzip

All Options:
[ --atime-preserve ] [ -b, --blocking-factor N ] [ -B, --read-full-records ] [ --backup BACKUP-TYPE ] [ --block-compress ] [ -C, --directory DIR ] [ --check-links ] [ --checkpoint ] [ -f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F ] [ -F, --info-script F --new-volume-script F ] [ --force-local ] [ --format FORMAT ] [ -g, --listed-incremental F ] [ -G, --incremental ] [ --group GROUP ] [ -h, --dereference ] [ --help ] [ -i, --ignore-zeros ] [ --ignore-case ] [ --ignore-failed-read ] [ --index-file FILE ] [ -j, --bzip2 ] [ -k, --keep-old-files ] [ -K, --starting-file F ] [ --keep-newer-files ] [ -l, --one-file-system ] [ -L, --tape-length N ] [ -m, --touch, --modification-time ] [ -M, --multi-volume ] [ --mode PERMISSIONS ] [ -N, --after-date DATE, --newer DATE ] [ --newer-mtime DATE ] [ --no-anchored ] [ --no-ignore-case ] [ --no-recursion ] [ --no-same-permissions ] [ --no-wildcards ] [ --no-wildcards-match-slash ] [ --null ] [ --numeric-owner ] [ -o, --old-archive, --portability, --no-same-owner ] [ -O, --to-stdout ] [ --occurrence[=NUMBER] ] [ --overwrite ] [ --overwrite-dir ] [ --owner USER ] [ -p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions ] [ -P, --absolute-names ] [ --pax-option KEYWORD-LIST ] [ --posix ] [ --preserve ] [ --acls ] [ --selinux ] [ --xattrs ] [ --no-acls ] [ --no-selinux ] [ --no-xattrs ] [ -R, --block-number ] [ --record-size SIZE ] [ --recursion ] [ --recursive-unlink ] [ --remove-files ] [ --rmt-command CMD ] [ --rsh-command CMD ] [ -s, --same-order, --preserve-order ] [ -S, --sparse ] [ --same-owner ] [ --show-defaults ] [ --show-omitted-dirs ] [ --strip-components NUMBER, --strip-path NUMBER (1) ] [ --suffix SUFFIX ] [ -T, --files-from F ] [ --totals ] [ -U, --unlink-first ] [ --use-compress-program PROG ] [ --utc ] [ -v, --verbose ] [ -V, --label NAME ] [ --version ] [ --volno-file F ] [ -w, --interactive, --confirmation ] [ -W, --verify ] [ --wildcards ] [ --wildcards-match-slash ] [ --exclude PATTERN ] [ -X, --exclude-from FILE ] [ -Z, --compress, --uncompress ] [ -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip ] [ -[0-7][lmh] ]

(1) tar-1.14 uses --strip-path, tar-1.14.90+ uses --strip-components

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents the GNU version of tar, an archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as a tarfile. A tarfile may be made on a tape drive, however, it is also common to write a tarfile to a normal file. The first argument to tar must be one of the options Acdrtux, followed by any optional functions. The final arguments to 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.

EXAMPLES

Tag	Description
tar -xvf foo.tar
	verbosely extract foo.tar
tar -xzf foo.tar.gz
	extract gzipped foo.tar.gz
tar -cjf foo.tar.bz2 bar/
	create bzipped tar archive of the directory bar called foo.tar.bz2
tar -xjf foo.tar.bz2 -C bar/
	extract bzipped foo.tar.bz2 after changing directory to bar
tar -xzf foo.tar.gz blah.txt
	extract the file blah.txt from foo.tar.gz

FUNCTION LETTERS

Tag	Description
One of the following options must be used: -A, --catenate, --concatenate
	append tar files to an archive
-c, --create
	create a new archive
-d, --diff, --compare
	find differences between archive and file system
-r, --append
	append files to the end of an archive
-t, --list
	list the contents of an archive
-u, --update
	only append files that are newer than the existing in archive
-x, --extract, --get
	extract files from an archive
--delete
	delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)

COMMON OPTIONS

Tag	Description
-C, --directory DIR
	change to directory DIR
-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F
	use archive file or device F (default "-", meaning stdin/stdout)
-j, --bzip2
	filter archive through bzip2, use to decompress .bz2 files
-p, --preserve-permissions
	extract all protection information
-v, --verbose
	verbosely list files processed
-z, --gzip, --ungzip
	filter the archive through gzip

ALL OPTIONS

Tag

Description

--atime-preserve

don’t change access times on dumped files

-b, --blocking-factor N

block size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)

-B, --read-full-blocks

reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)

--backup BACKUP-TYPE

backup files instead of deleting them using BACKUP-TYPE simple or numbered

--block-compress

block the output of compression program for tapes

-C, --directory DIR

change to directory DIR

--check-links

warn if number of hard links to the file on the filesystem mismatch the number of links recorded in the archive

--checkpoint

print directory names while reading the archive

-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F

use archive file or device F (default "-", meaning stdin/stdout)

-F, --info-script F --new-volume-script F

run script at end of each tape (implies --multi-volume)

--force-local

archive file is local even if has a colon

--format FORMAT

selects output archive format

v7 - Unix V7
oldgnu - GNU tar <=1.12
gnu - GNU tar 1.13
ustar - POSIX.1-1988
posix - POSIX.1-2001

-g, --listed-incremental F

create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup

-G, --incremental

create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup

-h, --dereference

don’t dump symlinks; dump the files they point to

--help

like this manpage, but not as cool

-i, --ignore-zeros

ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF)

--ignore-case

ignore case when excluding files

--ignore-failed-read

don’t exit with non-zero status on unreadable files

--index-file FILE

send verbose output to FILE instead of stdout

-j, --bzip2

filter archive through bzip2, use to decompress .bz2 files

-k, --keep-old-files

keep existing files; don’t overwrite them from archive

-K, --starting-file F

begin at file F in the archive

--keep-newer-files

do not overwrite files which are newer than the archive

-l, --one-file-system

stay in local file system when creating an archive

-L, --tape-length N

change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes

-m, --touch, --modification-time

don’t extract file modified time

-M, --multi-volume

create/list/extract multi-volume archive

--mode PERMISSIONS

apply PERMISSIONS while adding files (see chmod(1))

-N, --after-date DATE, --newer DATE

only store files newer than DATE

--newer-mtime DATE

like --newer, but with a DATE

--no-anchored

match any subsequenceof the name’s components with --exclude

--no-ignore-case

use case-sensitive matching with --exclude

--no-recursion

don’t recurse into directories

--no-same-permissions

apply user’s umask when extracting files instead of recorded permissions

--no-wildcards

don’t use wildcards with --exclude

--no-wildcards-match-slash

wildcards do not match slashes (/) with --exclude

--null

--files-from reads null-terminated names, disable --directory

--numeric-owner

always use numbers for user/group names

-o, --old-archive, --portability

like --format=v7; -o exhibits this behavior when creating an archive (deprecated behavior)

-o, --no-same-owner

do not attempt to restore ownership when extracting; -o exhibits this behavior when extracting an archive

-O, --to-stdout

extract files to standard output

--occurrence[=NUMBER]

process only the NUMBERth occurrence of each file in the archive; this option is valid only in conjunction with one of the subcommands --delete, --diff, --extract or --list and when a list of files is given either on the command line or via the -T option; NUMBER defaults to 1

--overwrite

overwrite existing files and directory metadata when extracting

--overwrite-dir

overwrite directory metadata when extracting

--owner USER

change owner of extraced files to USER

-p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions

extract all protection information

-P, --absolute-names

don’t strip leading ‘/’s from file names

--pax-option KEYWORD-LIST

used only with POSIX.1-2001 archives to modify the way tar handles extended header keywords

--posix

like --format=posix

--preserve

like --preserve-permissions --same-order

--acls

this option causes tar to store each file’s ACLs in the archive.

--selinux

this option causes tar to store each file’s SELinux security context information in the archive.

--xattrs

this option causes tar to store each file’s extended attributes in the archive. This option also enables --acls and--selinux if they haven’t been set already, due to the fact that the data for those are stored in special xattrs.

--no-acls

This option causes tar not to store each file’s ACLs in the archive and not to extract any ACL information in an archive.

--no-selinux

this option causes tar not to store each file’s SELinux security context information in the archive and not to extract any SELinux information in an archive.

--no-xattrs

this option causes tar not to store each file’s extended attributes in the archive and not to extract any extended attributes in an archive. This option also enables --no-acls and --no-selinux if they haven’t been set already.

-R, --record-number

show record number within archive with each message

--record-size SIZE

use SIZE bytes per record when accessing archives

--recursion

recurse into directories

--recursive-unlink

remove existing directories before extracting directories of the same name

--remove-files

remove files after adding them to the archive

--rmt-command CMD

use CMD instead of the default /usr/sbin/rmt

--rsh-command CMD

use remote CMD instead of rsh(1)

-s, --same-order, --preserve-order

list of names to extract is sorted to match archive

-S, --sparse

handle sparse files efficiently

--same-owner

create extracted files with the same ownership

--show-defaults

display the default options used by tar

--show-omitted-dirs

print directories tar skips while operating on an archive

--strip-components NUMBER, --strip-path NUMBER

strip NUMBER of leading components from file names before extraction

(1) tar-1.14 uses --strip-path, tar-1.14.90+ uses --strip-components

--suffix SUFFIX

use SUFFIX instead of default ’~’ when backing up files

-T, --files-from F

get names to extract or create from file F

--totals

print total bytes written with --create

-U, --unlink-first

remove existing files before extracting files of the same name

--use-compress-program PROG

access the archive through PROG which is generally a compression program

--utc

display file modification dates in UTC

-v, --verbose

verbosely list files processed

-V, --label NAME

create archive with volume name NAME

--version

print tar program version number

--volno-file F

keep track of which volume of a multi-volume archive its working in FILE; used with --multi-volume

-w, --interactive, --confirmation

ask for confirmation for every action

-W, --verify

attempt to verify the archive after writing it

--wildcards

use wildcards with --exclude

--wildcards-match-slash

wildcards match slashes (/) with --exclude

--exclude PATTERN

exclude files based upon PATTERN

-X, --exclude-from FILE

exclude files listed in FILE

-Z, --compress, --uncompress

filter the archive through compress

-z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip

filter the archive through gzip

--use-compress-program PROG

filter the archive through PROG (which must accept -d)

-[0-7][lmh]

specify drive and density

BUGS

The GNU folks, in general, abhor man pages, and create info documents instead. The maintainer of tar falls into this category. Thus this man page may not be complete, nor current, and was included in the Red Hat CVS tree because man is a great tool :). This man page was first taken from Debian Linux and has since been loving updated here.

REPORTING BUGS

Please report bugs via https://bugzilla.redhat.com

Tag	Description
	info tar

AUTHORS

Debian Linux http://www.debian.org/
Mike Frysinger <[email protected]>

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