tar(1) BSD Reference Manual tar(1)
NAME
tar - read and write tar format archives
SYNOPSIS
tar -{crtux}[Behilmopvw014578] [-f tarfile] [-b blocksize] [-I
includefile] [file1 ...] [-C directory] fileN ...
DESCRIPTION
Tar reads and writes tar interchange format archives. You can specify a
directory in place of a file and that directory will be archived recur-
sively.
Note that this version of tar requires a leading dash on the argument
list and that options can be split out (e.g., tar -x -v -f archive file1
file2).
It is highly recommended that you switch to pax(1) in place of tar. To
ease this conversion take a look at ustar(1). Ustar accepts tar command
line options and converts them to the equivalant pax command. Also,
ustar doesn't require the leading dash so it is compatible with the stan-
dard tar command line processing.
You must specify exactly one of these options:
-c Create tarfile and write archive data into it.
-r Append the named files and directories to the archive. Not sup-
ported on all devices.
-t Print table of contents.
-u Update archive. Appends files to archive if they are not already
present or have been modified since the date of the archive.
This can be slow.
-x Extract the named files. If a directory is named it's contents
are extracted recursively. If no file names are given the entire
archive is extracted.
The optional arguments are:
-b blocksize
Set blocking factor (requires argument blocksize). The default
blocksize is 10240. Blocksize is set automatically when reading
an archive.
-B Repairs short reads. Causes tar to reblock the output. Useful
when reading from a pipe.
-e Exit with status greater than 0 if unexpected errors occur. By
default tar will try and recover from errors reading the archive.
-f tarfile
Specify archive name (requires argument tarfile). By default tar
will use the device specified in the TAPE environment variable or
/dev/rmt8 if it is unset. If `-' tar will read or write using
standard I/O. If a filename is preceded by -I then it is assumed
to be a file that contains a list of files to be archived. If a
filename is preceded by -C then it is assumed to specify a direc-
tory; tar will chdir to that directory before processsing the
reminaing files. This is used for gathering up files from scat-
tered directories into a single archive.
-h Archive the file or directory pointed to by symbolic links. By
default tar archives the symbolic link itself.
-i Ignore checksum errors.
-l Warn if all links to archived files cannot be resolved.
-m Set the modification time of extracted files to time extracted.
By deafult the time is set from the data in the archive. See al-
so the -p and -o options.
-o Suppress archiving owner and modes of directories. This is only
useful if the archive will be extracted using old versions of
tar.
-p Preserve the file permissions, user ID, and group ID of the re-
stored files. The extended file modes are restored if extracted
by the super-user.
-v Display verbose messages about what is being archived or extract-
ed.
-w Tar will wait for user confirmation before acting on each member
of the archive. Action is only taken if the input line contains
a leading `y'.
-014578
Choose an alternate tape device (e.g., 1 specifies /dev/rmt1).
FILES
/dev/rmt? magnetic tape drives
/dev/rst? SCSI tape drives
/dev/rwt? WangTek tape drives
BUGS
This version of tar is not USTAR conformant, use pax(1) or ustar(1).
SEE ALSO
pax(1), ustar(1)
BSDI BSD/386 March 26, 1993 2