tar(1) -- Linux man page

NAME

SYNOPSIS

filename1 [ filename2, ... filenameN ]

directory1 [ directory2, ...directoryN ]

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.  

FUNCTION LETTERS

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

--delete                

delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)

-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 copy in archive

-x, --extract, --get            

extract files from an archive

OTHER OPTIONS

--atime-preserve       

don't change access times on dumped files

-b, --block-size N      

block size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)

-B, --read-full-blocks  

reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)

-C, --directory DIR     

change to directory DIR

--checkpoint            

print directory names while reading the archive

-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F 

use archive file or device F (default /dev/rmt0)

--force-local           

archive file is local even if has a colon

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

run script at end of each tape (implies -M)

-G, --incremental       

create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup

-g, --listed-incremental F

create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup

-h, --dereference       

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

-i, --ignore-zeros      

ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF)

-j, -I, --bzip

filter the archive through bzip2. Note: -I is deprecated and may get a different meaning in the near future.

--ignore-failed-read    

don't exit with non-zero status on unreadable 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

-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, --modification-time 

don't extract file modified time

-M, --multi-volume      

create/list/extract multi-volume archive

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

only store files newer than DATE

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

write a V7 format archive, rather than ANSI format

-O, --to-stdout         

extract files to standard output

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

extract all protection information

-P, --absolute-paths    

don't strip leading `/'s from file names

--preserve              

like -p -s

-R, --record-number     

show record number within archive with each message

--remove-files          

remove files after adding them to the archive

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

list of names to extract is sorted to match archive

--same-owner            

create extracted files with the same ownership

-S, --sparse            

handle sparse files efficiently

-T, --files-from=F      

get names to extract or create from file F

--null                  

-T reads null-terminated names, disable -C

--totals                

print total bytes written with --create

-v, --verbose           

verbosely list files processed

-V, --label NAME        

create archive with volume name NAME

--version               

print tar program version number

-w, --interactive, --confirmation       

ask for confirmation for every action

-W, --verify            

attempt to verify the archive after writing it

--exclude FILE          

exclude file FILE

-X, --exclude-from FILE 

exclude files listed in FILE

-Z, --compress, --uncompress       

filter the archive through compress

-z, --gzip, --ungzip            

filter the archive through gzip

--use-compress-program PROG

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