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TAR(1)                                                                  TAR(1)



NAME
       tar - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility

SYNOPSIS
       tar  [ - ] A --catenate --concatenate | c --create | d --diff --compare
       | --delete | r --append | t --list | u --update | x --extract  --get  [
       options ] pathname [ pathname ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page documents the GNU version of tar , an archiving pro‐
       gram 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 func‐
       tions.  The final arguments to tar are the names of the files or direc‐
       tories  which  should  be  archived. The use of a directory name always
       implies that  the  subdirectories  below  should  be  included  in  the
       archive.

EXAMPLES
       tar -xvvf foo.tar
              extract foo.tar

       tar -xvvzf foo.tar.gz
              extract gzipped foo.tar.gz

       tar -cvvf foo.tar foo/
              tar contents of folder foo in foo.tar

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
       --allow-name-mangling
              re-enable  handling  of  GNUTYPE_NAMES  which is now disabled by
              default

       --anchored
              force exclusion patterns to match initial subsequences

       --atime-preserve
              don’t change access times on dumped files

       -a, --auto-compress
              with --create, selects compression algorithm basing on the  suf‐
              fix of the archive file name

       -b, --blocking-factor N
              use record size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)

       -B, --read-full-records
              reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)

       --backup[=TYPE]
              back  up  files instead of overwriting (TYPE=numbered, existing,
              simple)

       -C, --directory DIR
              change to directory DIR

       --checkpoint
              print periodic checkpoints

       --checkpoint-action
              this action allows to specify an action to be executed upon hit‐
              ting  a  checkpoint.   Recognized  actions  are:  dot, echo (the
              default),   echo=string,   ttyout=string,   exec=cmdline,    and
              sleep=value.  Any number of ‘--checkpoint-action’ options can be
              specified, the actions  will  be  executed  in  order  of  their
              appearance in the command line.

       --check-device
              enables comparing device numbers.  This is the default.

       --no-check-device
              disables comparing device numbers during preparatory stage of an
              incremental dump.  This allows to avoid creating full  dumps  if
              the device numbers change (e.g. when using an LVM snapshot)

       --exclude=PATTERN
              exclude files matching PATTERN

       -f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F
              use  archive  file or device F (otherwise value of TAPE environ‐
              ment variable; if unset, "-", meaning stdin/stdout)

       -F, --info-script F, --new-volume-script F
              run script at end of each tape (implies -M)

       --force-local
              archive file is local even if it has a colon

       -G, --incremental
              create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup

       -g, --listed-incremental F
              create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup

       --group G
              set group to G while adding files

       -h, --dereference
              don’t dump symlinks; dump the files they point to

       --hard-dereference
              during archive creation, dereferences hard links and stores  the
              files they refer to, instead of creating usual hard link members
              (type ’1’)

       --help print help message

       -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

       -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.

       -k, --keep-old-files
              keep existing files; don’t overwrite them from archive

       -K, --starting-file F
              begin at file F in the archive

       --lzma selects LZMA compression algorithm

       -l, --check-links
              print a message if not all links are dumped

       -L, --tape-length N
              change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes

       -m, --touch
              don’t extract file modified time

       --transform expr
              applies  filename  transformations.  The argument to this option
              can be a list of replace expressions, separated by semicolon (as
              in  ‘sed’).   Filename  transformations  are applied to symbolic
              link targets during both creation and extraction.   This  option
              may  be specified any number of times, the specified transofrma‐
              tions will be applied in turn.

       -M, --multi-volume
              create/list/extract multi-volume archive

       --mode M
              set permissions to M while adding files

       -N, --after-date DATE, --newer DATE
              only store files newer than DATE

       --newer-mtime DATE
              only store files whose contents have changed after DATE

       --no-anchored
              allow exclusion patterns to match any substring (the default)

       --no-ignore-case
              match patterns case sensitively (the default)

       --no-recursion
              do not recurse into subdirectories

       -o, --no-same-owner
              extract files with owner set to current user  (the  default  for
              non-root users)

       --no-same-permissions
              apply umask to extracted files (the default for non-root users)

       --no-wildcards
              do not use wildcards when excluding files

       --no-wildcards-match-slash
              don’t let wildcards match "/" when excluding files

       --null for -T, use "NUL" instead of newline as filename terminator

       --numeric-owner
              always use numbers for user/group names

       --old-archive, --portability
              write  a  V7  format  archive,  rather  than ANSI format.  These
              options are deprecated, please use --format=v7 instead.

       --one-file-system
              stay in local file system when creating an archive

       --owner O
              set owner to O while adding files

       -O, --to-stdout
              extract files to standard output

       -p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions
              ignore umask when extracting files (the default for root)

       -P, --absolute-names
              don’t strip leading ‘/’s from file names

       --posix
              create POSIX compliant  archive.   This  option  is  deprecated,
              please use --format=posix instead.

       --preserve
              like -p -s

       -R, --block-number
              show block number within archive with each message

       --record-size SIZE
              use SIZE bytes per record

       --recursion
              recurse into directories (the default)

       --recursive-unlink
              remove existing directories before extracting directories of the
              same name

       --remove-files
              remove files after adding them to the archive

       --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.

       -S, --sparse
              handle sparse files efficiently

       -s, --same-order, --preserve-order
              list of names to extract is sorted to match archive

       --same-owner
              extract files with owner as specified in  archive  (the  default
              for root)

       --show-omitted-dirs
              mention directories that are being skipped over

       --strip-components n
              Strip the given number of leading directory components

       --strip, --strip-components N
              Strips  the  first  N components from archive members’ pathnames
              when unpacking.

       --suffix SUFFIX
              append SUFFIX to make backup files (default ~)

       -T, --files-from F
              get names to extract or archive from file F

       --totals
              display total bytes written after creating an archive

       -U, --unlink-first
              unlink & recreate files instead of overwriting

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

       -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 current volume (of a multi-volume archive) in F

       -w, --interactive, --confirmation
              ask for confirmation for every action

       -W, --verify
              attempt to verify the archive after writing it

       --wildcards
              use wildcards when excluding files (the default)

       --wildcards-match-slash
              allow wildcards to match "/" (the default)

       -X, --exclude-from=FILE
              exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE

       -Z, --compress, --uncompress
              filter the archive through compress

       -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
              filter the archive through gzip

       -[0-7][lmh]
              specify drive and density

ENVIRONMENT
       The behavior of tar is controlled by the  following  environment  vari‐
       ables, among others:

       TAPE   Device  or  file  to use for the archive if --file is not speci‐
              fied.  If this environment variable is unset, use stdin or  std‐
              out instead.

       TAR_OPTIONS
              Options to prepend to those specified on the command line, sepa‐
              rated by whitespace.  Embedded backslashes may be used to escape
              whitespace or backslashes within an option.

       In addition, the value of the blocking factor is made available to info
       and checkpoint scripts via environment variable TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR.

BUGS
       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

                 <http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/index.html>

       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.



                                  29 Aug 2007                           TAR(1)