gnutar1

Usage

Overview

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 gnutar must be one of the options: Acdrtux, followed by any optional functions. The final arguments to gnutar 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.

Command

One of the following commands 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

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, --bzip

filter the archive through bzip2.

--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 gnutar 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)

Options

The extended options are options taken from star.

--help

Prints a summary of the most important options for gnutar(1) and exits.

--xhelp

Prints a summary of the less important options for gnutar(1) and exits.

--version

Prints the gnutar version number string and exists.

--debug

print additional debug messages

xdebug=#

xd=#

set extended debug level

-/

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

-..

don't skip filenames that contain '..' in non-interactive extract

--secure-links

don't extract links that start with '/' or contain '..'

--acl

handle access control lists

--xfflags

handle extended file flags

--no-fsync

do not call fsync() for each extracted file (may be dangerous)

--time

print timing info

--no-statistics

do not print statistics

--fifostats

print fifo statistics

--no-fifo

don't use a fifo to optimize data flow from/to tape

--numeric

don't use user/group name from tape

The options above are not defined by GNU tar.

For a complete documentation of the star based optione check star(1).

Examples

Environment

Files

Diagnostics

Notes

This gnutar implementation is based on the star implementation and does not implement all features of the original GNU tar program.