NAME

SYNOPSIS

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 FILE
-j, --bzip2
-J, --xz
-p, --preserve-permissions
-v, --verbose
-z, --gzip

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

DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

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 Note: When working with archives, specifying the compression option is often times unnecessary as tar will automatically detect the compression type based on the suffix of 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

-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 magnetic tapes!)

COMMON OPTIONS

-C, --directory DIR

change to directory DIR

-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]FILE

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

-j, --bzip2

filter archive through bzip2; use to decompress .bz2 files

-J, --xz

filter archive through xz; use to decompress .xz files

-p, --preserve-permissions

extract all protection information

-v, --verbose

verbosely list files processed

-z, --gzip, --ungzip

filter the archive through gzip

ALL OPTIONS

-a, --auto-compress

use archive suffix to determine the compression program

--add-file FILE

add specified FILE to the archive (useful if FILE starts with a dash)

--anchored

patterns will match the start of file names

--atime-preserve

don't change access times of files that are archived

-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

--checkpoint

print directory names while reading the archive

--delay-directory-restore

delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted directories until the end of extraction

--exclude PATTERN

exclude files based upon PATTERN

--exclude-caches

exclude directories that contain a cache directory tag

--exclude-tag FILE

exclude directories that contain a file named FILE

-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]FILE

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

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

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

--force-local

archive file is local even if its name contains a colon

--format FORMAT

selects the format of the created archive

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

-g, --listed-incremental SNAPSHOT

create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup

--group GROUP

give files added to the archive a group id of GROUP instead of the group id of the source file; this option does not affect extraction

-G, --incremental

create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup

-h, --dereference

don't archive symlinks; archive 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)

-I, --use-compress-program PROG

access the archive through PROG (which is generally a compression program; it must accept the -d option)

--ignore-case

ignore case when excluding files

--ignore-command-error

ignore exit codes of subprocesses

--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

-J, --xz

filter archive through xz; use to decompress .xz files

-k, --keep-old-files

keep existing files; don't overwrite them from archive

-K, --starting-file FILE

begin at file FILE in the archive

--keep-newer-files

do not overwrite files which are newer than the archive

-l, --check-links

warn if number of hard links to the file on the filesystem mismatchs the number of links recorded in the 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))

--mtime DATE

when creating archives, use DATE as the modification time of the members, instead of their actual modification times

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

only store files that were modified or had status updates (permissions, ACLs, extended attributes, ...) since DATE

--newer-mtime DATE

like --newer, but only store files that were modified since DATE

--no-anchored

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

--no-auto-compress

do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program

--no-delay-directory-restore

modification times and permissions of extracted directories are set when all files from this directory have been extracted; this is the default

--no-ignore-command-error

print warnings about subprocesses that terminated with a non-zero exit code

--no-ignore-case

use case-sensitive matching with --exclude

--no-overwrite-dir

preserve metadata of existing directories when extracting files from an archive

--no-quote-chars STRING

remove characters listed in STRING from the list of quoted characters set by a previous --quote-chars option

--no-recursion

don't recurse into directories

--no-same-permissions

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

--no-unquote

treat all input file or member names literally, do not interpret escape sequences

--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 NUM

process only NUM occurrences of each named file; used with --delete, --diff, --extract, or --list

--one-file-system

stay in local file system when creating an archive

--one-file-system

stay in local file system when creating an archive

--overwrite

overwrite existing files and directory metadata when extracting

--overwrite-dir

overwrite directory metadata when extracting

--owner USER

give files added to the archive a user id of USER instead of the user id of the source file; this option does not affect extraction

-p, --preserve-permissions, --same-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 plus --same-order

--quote-chars STRING

always quote the characters from STRING, even if the selected quoting style would not quote them

--quote-style STYLE

set the quoting style to be used when printing member and file names

-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

--restrict

disable the use of some potentially harmful options; currently this disables shell invocation from the multi-volume menu

--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

--show-transformed-names, --show-stored-names

display file or member names after applying any sed transformations

--strip-components NUMBER

strip NUMBER of leading path components from file names before extraction

--suffix SUFFIX

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

-T, --files-from FILE

get names to extract or create from file FILE

--test-label

read the volume label; if an argument is specified, test whether it matches the volume label

--to-command COMMAND

during extraction, pipe extracted files to the standard input of COMMAND

--totals

print total bytes written with --create

--transform EXPRESSION

transform file or member names using the sed replacement expression EXPRESSION

-U, --unlink-first

remove existing files before extracting files of the same name

--unquote

enable unquoting input file or member names; this is the default

--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 FILE

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

-X, --exclude-from FILE

exclude files listed in FILE

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

filter the archive through gzip

-Z, --compress, --uncompress

filter the archive through compress

-[0-7][lmh]

specify drive and density

BUGS

REPORTING BUGS

AUTHORS

Debian Linux http://www.debian.org/
Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

FUNCTION LETTERS

COMMON OPTIONS

ALL OPTIONS

BUGS

REPORTING BUGS

AUTHORS