TAR(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 					    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 | --test-label | u
	 --update | x --extract --get [options] [pathname ...]

DESCRIPTION
     Tar stores and extracts files from a tape or disk archive.

     The first argument to tar should be a function; either one of the letters Acdrtux, or one of the long function names.  A
     function letter need not be prefixed with ``-'', and may be combined with other single-letter options.  A long function name
     must be prefixed with --.	Some options take a parameter; with the single-letter form these must be given as separate argu‐
     ments.  With the long form, they may be given by appending =value to the option.

FUNCTION LETTERS
     Main operation mode:

     -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 on mag tapes!)

     -r, --append
	   append files to the end of an archive

     -t, --list
	   list the contents of an archive

     --test-label
	   test the archive volume label and exit

     -u, --update
	   only append files newer than copy in archive

     -x, --extract, --get
	   extract files from an archive

OTHER OPTIONS
     Operation modifiers:

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

     -a, --auto-compress
	   use archive suffix to determine the compression program

     --add-file=FILE
	   add given FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash)

     --anchored
	   patterns match file name start

     --no-anchored
	   patterns match after any `/' (default for exclusion)

     --atime-preserve
	   preserve access times on dumped files, either by restoring the times

     --no-auto-compress
	   do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program

     -b, --blocking-factor BLOCKS
	   BLOCKS x 512 bytes per record

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

     --backup
	   backup before removal, choose version CONTROL

     -C, --directory DIR
	   change to directory DIR

     --check-device
	   check device numbers when creating incremental archives (default)

     --no-check-device
	   do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives

     --checkpoint
	   display progress messages every NUMBERth record (default 10)

     --checkpoint-action=ACTION
	   execute ACTION on each checkpoint

     --delay-directory-restore
	   delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted

     --no-delay-directory-restore
	   cancel the effect of --delay-directory-restore option

     --exclude=PATTERN
	   exclude files, given as a PATTERN

     --exclude-backups
	   exclude backup and lock files

     --exclude-caches
	   exclude contents of directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG,

     --exclude-caches-all
	   exclude directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG

     --exclude-caches-under
	   exclude everything under directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG

     --exclude-tag=FILE
	   exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except

     --exclude-tag-all=FILE
	   exclude directories containing FILE

     --exclude-tag-under=FILE
	   exclude everything under directories containing FILE

     --exclude-vcs
	   exclude version control system directories

     -f, --file ARCHIVE
	   use archive file or device ARCHIVE

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

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

     --full-time
	   print file time to its full resolution

     -g, --listed-incremental FILE
	   handle new GNU-format incremental backup

     -G, --incremental
	   handle old GNU-format incremental backup

     --group=NAME
	   force NAME as group for added files

     -h, --dereference
	   follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to

     -H, --format FORMAT
	   create archive of the given formatFORMAT is one of the following:

	   --format=gnu
		 GNU tar 1.13.x format

	   --format=oldgnu
		 GNU format as per tar <= 1.12

	   --format=pax
		 POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format

	   --format=posix
		 same as pax

	   --format=ustar
		 POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format

	   --format=v7
		 old V7 tar format

     --hard-dereference
	   follow hard links; archive and dump the files they refer to

     -i, --ignore-zeros
	   ignore zeroed blocks in archive (means EOF)

     -I, --use-compress-program PROG
	   filter through PROG (must accept -d)

     --ignore-case
	   ignore case

     --no-ignore-case
	   case sensitive matching (default)

     --ignore-command-error
	   ignore exit codes of children

     --no-ignore-command-error
	   treat non-zero exit codes of children as error

     --ignore-failed-read
	   do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files

     --index-file=FILE
	   send verbose output to FILE

     -j, --bzip2


     -J, --xz


     -k, --keep-old-files
	   don't replace existing files when extracting

     -K, --starting-file MEMBER-NAME
	   begin at member MEMBER-NAME in the archive

     --keep-newer-files
	   don't replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies

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

     -L, --tape-length NUMBER
	   change tape after writing NUMBER x 1024 bytes

     --level=NUMBER
	   dump level for created listed-incremental archive

     --lzip


     --lzma


     --lzop


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

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

     --mode=CHANGES
	   force (symbolic) mode CHANGES for added files

     --mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
	   set mtime for added files from DATE-OR-FILE

     -n, --seek
	   archive is seekable

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

     --newer-mtime=DATE
	   compare date and time when data changed only

     --null
	   -T reads null-terminated names, disable -C

     --no-null
	   disable the effect of the previous --null option

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

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

     --occurrence
	   process only the NUMBERth occurrence of each file in the archive;

     --old-archive, --portability
	   same as --format=v7

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

     --overwrite
	   overwrite existing files when extracting

     --overwrite-dir
	   overwrite metadata of existing directories when extracting (default)

     --no-overwrite-dir
	   preserve metadata of existing directories

     --owner=NAME
	   force NAME as owner for added files

     -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions
	   extract information about file permissions (default for superuser)

     -P, --absolute-names
	   don't strip leading `/'s from file names

     --pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
	   control pax keywords

     --posix
	   same as --format=posix

     --preserve
	   same as both -p and -s

     --quote-chars=STRING
	   additionally quote characters from STRING

     --no-quote-chars=STRING
	   disable quoting for characters from STRING

     --quoting-style=STYLE
	   set name quoting style; see below for valid STYLE values

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

     --record-size=NUMBER
	   NUMBER of bytes per record, multiple of 512

     --recursion
	   recurse into directories (default)

     --no-recursion
	   avoid descending automatically in directories

     --recursive-unlink
	   empty hierarchies prior to extracting directory

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

     --restrict
	   disable use of some potentially harmful options

     --rmt-command=COMMAND
	   use given rmt COMMAND instead of rmt

     --rsh-command=COMMAND
	   use remote COMMAND instead of rsh

     -s, --preserve-order, --same-order
	   sort names to extract to match archive

     -S, --sparse
	   handle sparse files efficiently

     --same-owner
	   try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser)

     --no-same-owner
	   extract files as yourself (default for ordinary users)

     --no-same-permissions
	   apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from the archive (default for ordinary users)

     --no-seek
	   archive is not seekable

     --show-defaults
	   show tar defaults

     --show-omitted-dirs
	   when listing or extracting, list each directory that does not match search criteria

     --show-transformed-names, --show-stored-names
	   show file or archive names after transformation

     --sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
	   set version of the sparse format to use (implies --sparse)

     --strip-components=NUMBER
	   strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction

     --suffix=STRING
	   backup before removal, override usual suffix ('~' unless overridden by environment variable SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX)

     -T, --files-from FILE
	   get names to extract or create from FILE

     --to-command=COMMAND
	   pipe extracted files to another program

     --totals
	   print total bytes after processing the archive;

     --transform, --xform EXPRESSION
	   use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names

     -U, --unlink-first
	   remove each file prior to extracting over it

     --unquote
	   unquote filenames read with -T (default)

     --no-unquote
	   do not unquote filenames read with -T

     --utc
	   print file modification times in UTC

     -v, --verbose
	   verbosely list files processed

     -V, --label TEXT
	   create archive with volume name TEXT; at list/extract time, use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume name

     --volno-file=FILE
	   use/update the volume number in FILE

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

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

     --warning=KEYWORD
	   warning control

     --wildcards
	   use wildcards (default for exclusion)

     --wildcards-match-slash
	   wildcards match `/' (default for exclusion)

     --no-wildcards-match-slash
	   wildcards do not match `/'

     --no-wildcards
	   verbatim string matching

     -X, --exclude-from FILE
	   exclude patterns listed in FILE

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


     -Z, --compress, --uncompress


ENVIRONMENT
     The behavior of tar is controlled by the following environment variables, among others:

     SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
	     Backup prefix to use when extracting, if --suffix is not specified.  The backup suffix defaults to `~' if neither is
	     specified.

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

     TAPE    Device or file to use for the archive if --file is not specified.	If this environment variable is unset, use stdin
	     or stdout instead.

     TAR_LONGLINK_100

EXAMPLES
     Create archive.tar from files foo and bar.
	   tar -cf archive.tar foo bar
     List all files in archive.tar verbosely.
	   tar -tvf archive.tar
     Extract all files from archive.tar.
	   tar -xf archive.tar

SEE ALSO
     tar(5), symlink(7), rmt(8)

HISTORY
     The tar command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

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 makes it impossible to include any text from that document
     in this man page.	Most of the text in this document was automatically extracted from the usage text in the source.  It may
     not completely describe all features of the program.

							   Mar 31, 2012