1TAR(1) GNU TAR Manual TAR(1)
2
6 tar - an archiving utility
7
9 Traditional usage
10 tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]
11 UNIX-style usage
13 tar -A [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE
14 tar -c [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
16 tar -d [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
18 tar -t [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]
20 tar -r [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
22 tar -u [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
24 tar -x [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]
26 GNU-style usage
28 tar {--catenate|--concatenate} [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE
29 tar --create [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
31 tar {--diff|--compare} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
33 tar --delete [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]
35 tar --append [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
37 tar --list [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]
39 tar --test-label [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [LABEL...]
41 tar --update [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
43 tar --update [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]
45 tar {--extract|--get} [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]
47
49 This manpage is a short description of GNU tar. For a detailed discus‐
50 sion, including examples and usage recommendations, refer to the GNU
51 Tar Manual available in texinfo format. If the info reader and the tar
52 documentation are properly installed on your system, the command
53 info tar
55 should give you access to the complete manual.
57 You can also view the manual using the info mode in emacs(1), or find
59 it in various formats online at
60 http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual
62 If any discrepancies occur between this manpage and the GNU Tar Manual,
64 the later shall be considered the authoritative source.
65
67 GNU tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files in a
68 single file (an archive), and to manipulate such archives. The archive
69 can be either a regular file or a device (e.g. a tape drive, hence the
70 name of the program, which stands for tape archiver), which can be
71 located either on the local or on a remote machine.
72 Option styles
74 Options to GNU tar can be given in three different styles. In tradi‐
75 tional style, the first argument is a cluster of option letters and all
76 subsequent arguments supply arguments to those options that require
77 them. The arguments are read in the same order as the option letters.
78 Any command line words that remain after all options has been processed
79 are treated as non-optional arguments: file or archive member names.
80 For example, the c option requires creating the archive, the v option
82 requests the verbose operation, and the f option takes an argument that
83 sets the name of the archive to operate upon. The following command,
84 written in the traditional style, instructs tar to store all files from
85 the directory /etc into the archive file etc.tar verbosely listing the
86 files being archived:
87 tar cfv etc.tar /etc
89 In UNIX or short-option style, each option letter is prefixed with a
91 single dash, as in other command line utilities. If an option takes
92 argument, the argument follows it, either as a separate command line
93 word, or immediately following the option. However, if the option
94 takes an optional argument, the argument must follow the option letter
95 without any intervening whitespace, as in -g/tmp/snar.db.
96 Any number of options not taking arguments can be clustered together
98 after a single dash, e.g. -vkp. Options that take arguments (whether
99 mandatory or optional), can appear at the end of such a cluster, e.g.
100 -vkpf a.tar.
101 The example command above written in the short-option style could look
103 like:
104 tar -cvf etc.tar /etc
106 or
107 tar -c -v -f etc.tar /etc
108 In GNU or long-option style, each option begins with two dashes and has
110 a meaningful name, consisting of lower-case letters and dashes. When
111 used, the long option can be abbreviated to its initial letters, pro‐
112 vided that this does not create ambiguity. Arguments to long options
113 are supplied either as a separate command line word, immediately fol‐
114 lowing the option, or separated from the option by an equals sign with
115 no intervening whitespace. Optional arguments must always use the lat‐
116 ter method.
117 Here are several ways of writing the example command in this style:
119 tar --create --file etc.tar --verbose /etc
121 or (abbreviating some options):
122 tar --cre --file=etc.tar --verb /etc
123 The options in all three styles can be intermixed, although doing so
125 with old options is not encouraged.
126 Operation mode
128 The options listed in the table below tell GNU tar what operation it is
129 to perform. Exactly one of them must be given. Meaning of non-
130 optional arguments depends on the operation mode requested.
131 -A, --catenate, --concatenate
133 Append archive to the end of another archive. The arguments are
134 treated as the names of archives to append. All archives must
135 be of the same format as the archive they are appended to, oth‐
136 erwise the resulting archive might be unusable with non-GNU
137 implementations of tar. Notice also that when more than one ar‐
138 chive is given, the members from archives other than the first
139 one will be accessible in the resulting archive only if using
140 the -i (--ignore-zeros) option.
141 Compressed archives cannot be concatenated.
143 -c, --create
145 Create a new archive. Arguments supply the names of the files
146 to be archived. Directories are archived recursively, unless
147 the --no-recursion option is given.
148 -d, --diff, --compare
150 Find differences between archive and file system. The arguments
151 are optional and specify archive members to compare. If not
152 given, the current working directory is assumed.
153 --delete
155 Delete from the archive. The arguments supply names of the ar‐
156 chive members to be removed. At least one argument must be
157 given.
158 This option does not operate on compressed archives. There is
160 no short option equivalent.
161 -r, --append
163 Append files to the end of an archive. Arguments have the same
164 meaning as for -c (--create).
165 -t, --list
167 List the contents of an archive. Arguments are optional. When
168 given, they specify the names of the members to list.
169 --test-label
171 Test the archive volume label and exit. When used without argu‐
172 ments, it prints the volume label (if any) and exits with status
173 0. When one or more command line arguments are given. tar com‐
174 pares the volume label with each argument. It exits with code 0
175 if a match is found, and with code 1 otherwise. No output is
176 displayed, unless used together with the -v (--verbose) option.
177 There is no short option equivalent for this option.
179 -u, --update
181 Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the
182 archive. Arguments have the same meaning as with -c and -r
183 options. Notice, that newer files don't replace their old ar‐
184 chive copies, but instead are appended to the end of archive.
185 The resulting archive can thus contain several members of the
186 same name, corresponding to various versions of the same file.
187 -x, --extract, --get
189 Extract files from an archive. Arguments are optional. When
190 given, they specify names of the archive members to be
191 extracted.
192 --show-defaults
195 Show built-in defaults for various tar options and exit.
196 No arguments are allowed.
197 -?, --help
199 Display a short option summary and exit. No arguments
200 allowed.
201 --usage
203 Display a list of available options and exit. No argu‐
204 ments allowed.
205 --version
207 Print program version and copyright information and exit.
208
210 Operation modifiers
211 --check-device
212 Check device numbers when creating incremental archives
213 (default).
214 -g, --listed-incremental=FILE
216 Handle new GNU-format incremental backups. FILE is the
217 name of a snapshot file, where tar stores additional
218 information which is used to decide which files changed
219 since the previous incremental dump and, consequently,
220 must be dumped again. If FILE does not exist when creat‐
221 ing an archive, it will be created and all files will be
222 added to the resulting archive (the level 0 dump). To
223 create incremental archives of non-zero level N, create a
224 copy of the snapshot file created during the level N-1,
225 and use it as FILE.
226 When listing or extracting, the actual contents of FILE
228 is not inspected, it is needed only due to syntactical
229 requirements. It is therefore common practice to use
230 /dev/null in its place.
231 --hole-detection=METHOD
233 Use METHOD to detect holes in sparse files. This option
234 implies --sparse. Valid values for METHOD are seek and
235 raw. Default is seek with fallback to raw when not
236 applicable.
237 -G, --incremental
239 Handle old GNU-format incremental backups.
240 --ignore-failed-read
242 Do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files.
243 --level=NUMBER
245 Set dump level for created listed-incremental archive.
246 Currently only --level=0 is meaningful: it instructs tar
247 to truncate the snapshot file before dumping, thereby
248 forcing a level 0 dump.
249 -n, --seek
251 Assume the archive is seekable. Normally tar determines
252 automatically whether the archive can be seeked or not.
253 This option is intended for use in cases when such recog‐
254 nition fails. It takes effect only if the archive is
255 open for reading (e.g. with --list or --extract options).
256 --no-check-device
258 Do not check device numbers when creating incremental ar‐
259 chives.
260 --no-seek
262 Assume the archive is not seekable.
263 --occurrence[=N]
265 Process only the Nth occurrence of each file in the ar‐
266 chive. This option is valid only when used with one of
267 the following subcommands: --delete, --diff, --extract or
268 --list and when a list of files is given either on the
269 command line or via the -T option. The default N is 1.
270 --restrict
272 Disable the use of some potentially harmful options.
273 --sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
275 Set version of the sparse format to use (implies
276 --sparse). This option implies --sparse. Valid argument
277 values are 0.0, 0.1, and 1.0. For a detailed discussion
278 of sparse formats, refer to the GNU Tar Manual, appendix
279 D, "Sparse Formats". Using info reader, it can be
280 accessed running the following command: info tar 'Sparse
281 Formats'.
282 -S, --sparse
284 Handle sparse files efficiently. Some files in the file
285 system may have segments which were actually never writ‐
286 ten (quite often these are database files created by such
287 systems as DBM). When given this option, tar attempts to
288 determine if the file is sparse prior to archiving it,
289 and if so, to reduce the resulting archive size by not
290 dumping empty parts of the file.
291 Overwrite control
293 These options control tar actions when extracting a file over an
294 existing copy on disk.
295 -k, --keep-old-files
297 Don't replace existing files when extracting.
298 --keep-newer-files
300 Don't replace existing files that are newer than their
301 archive copies.
302 --keep-directory-symlink
304 Don't replace existing symlinks to directories when
305 extracting.
306 --no-overwrite-dir
308 Preserve metadata of existing directories.
309 --one-top-level[=DIR]
311 Extract all files into DIR, or, if used without argument,
312 into a subdirectory named by the base name of the archive
313 (minus standard compression suffixes recognizable by
314 --auto-compress).
315 --overwrite
317 Overwrite existing files when extracting.
318 --overwrite-dir
320 Overwrite metadata of existing directories when extract‐
321 ing (default).
322 --recursive-unlink
324 Recursively remove all files in the directory prior to
325 extracting it.
326 --remove-files
328 Remove files from disk after adding them to the archive.
329 --skip-old-files
331 Don't replace existing files when extracting, silently
332 skip over them.
333 -U, --unlink-first
335 Remove each file prior to extracting over it.
336 -W, --verify
338 Verify the archive after writing it.
339 Output stream selection
341 --ignore-command-error
342 Ignore subprocess exit codes.
344 --no-ignore-command-error
346 Treat non-zero exit codes of children as error (default).
347 -O, --to-stdout
349 Extract files to standard output.
350 --to-command=COMMAND
352 Pipe extracted files to COMMAND. The argument is the
353 pathname of an external program, optionally with command
354 line arguments. The program will be invoked and the con‐
355 tents of the file being extracted supplied to it on its
356 standard input. Additional data will be supplied via the
357 following environment variables:
358 TAR_FILETYPE
360 Type of the file. It is a single letter with the
361 following meaning:
362 f Regular file
364 d Directory
365 l Symbolic link
366 h Hard link
367 b Block device
368 c Character device
369 Currently only regular files are supported.
371 TAR_MODE
373 File mode, an octal number.
374 TAR_FILENAME
376 The name of the file.
377 TAR_REALNAME
379 Name of the file as stored in the archive.
380 TAR_UNAME
382 Name of the file owner.
383 TAR_GNAME
385 Name of the file owner group.
386 TAR_ATIME
388 Time of last access. It is a decimal number, rep‐
389 resenting seconds since the Epoch. If the archive
390 provides times with nanosecond precision, the
391 nanoseconds are appended to the timestamp after a
392 decimal point.
393 TAR_MTIME
395 Time of last modification.
396 TAR_CTIME
398 Time of last status change.
399 TAR_SIZE
401 Size of the file.
402 TAR_UID
404 UID of the file owner.
405 TAR_GID
407 GID of the file owner.
408 Additionally, the following variables contain information
410 about tar operation mode and the archive being processed:
411 TAR_VERSION
413 GNU tar version number.
414 TAR_ARCHIVE
416 The name of the archive tar is processing.
417 TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
419 Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte
420 blocks in a record.
421 TAR_VOLUME
423 Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing
424 (set if reading a multi-volume archive).
425 TAR_FORMAT
427 Format of the archive being processed. One of:
428 gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7. TAR_SUBCOMMAND A
429 short option (with a leading dash) describing the
430 operation tar is executing.
431 Handling of file attributes
433 --atime-preserve[=METHOD]
434 Preserve access times on dumped files, either by restor‐
435 ing the times after reading (METHOD=replace, this is the
436 default) or by not setting the times in the first place
437 (METHOD=system)
438 --delay-directory-restore
440 Delay setting modification times and permissions of
441 extracted directories until the end of extraction. Use
442 this option when extracting from an archive which has
443 unusual member ordering.
444 --group=NAME[:GID]
446 Force NAME as group for added files. If GID is not sup‐
447 plied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric GID. In
448 this case the missing part (GID or name) will be inferred
449 from the current host's group database.
450 When used with --group-map=FILE, affects only those files
452 whose owner group is not listed in FILE.
453 --group-map=FILE
455 Read group translation map from FILE. Empty lines are
456 ignored. Comments are introduced with # sign and extend
457 to the end of line. Each non-empty line in FILE defines
458 translation for a single group. It must consist of two
459 fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:
460 OLDGRP NEWGRP[:NEWGID]
462 OLDGRP is either a valid group name or a GID prefixed
464 with +. Unless NEWGID is supplied, NEWGRP must also be
465 either a valid group name or a +GID. Otherwise, both
466 NEWGRP and NEWGID need not be listed in the system group
467 database.
468 As a result, each input file with owner group OLDGRP will
470 be stored in archive with owner group NEWGRP and GID
471 NEWGID.
472 --mode=CHANGES
474 Force symbolic mode CHANGES for added files.
475 --mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
477 Set mtime for added files. DATE-OR-FILE is either a
478 date/time in almost arbitrary format, or the name of an
479 existing file. In the latter case the mtime of that file
480 will be used.
481 -m, --touch
483 Don't extract file modified time.
484 --no-delay-directory-restore
486 Cancel the effect of the prior --delay-directory-restore
487 option.
488 --no-same-owner
490 Extract files as yourself (default for ordinary users).
491 --no-same-permissions
493 Apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from
494 the archive (default for ordinary users).
495 --numeric-owner
497 Always use numbers for user/group names.
498 --owner=NAME[:UID]
500 Force NAME as owner for added files. If UID is not sup‐
501 plied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric UID. In
502 this case the missing part (UID or name) will be inferred
503 from the current host's user database.
504 When used with --owner-map=FILE, affects only those files
506 whose owner is not listed in FILE.
507 --owner-map=FILE
509 Read owner translation map from FILE. Empty lines are
510 ignored. Comments are introduced with # sign and extend
511 to the end of line. Each non-empty line in FILE defines
512 translation for a single UID. It must consist of two
513 fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:
514 OLDUSR NEWUSR[:NEWUID]
516 OLDUSR is either a valid user name or a UID prefixed with
518 +. Unless NEWUID is supplied, NEWUSR must also be either
519 a valid user name or a +UID. Otherwise, both NEWUSR and
520 NEWUID need not be listed in the system user database.
521 As a result, each input file owned by OLDUSR will be
523 stored in archive with owner name NEWUSR and UID NEWUID.
524 -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions
526 extract information about file permissions (default for
527 superuser)
528 --same-owner
530 Try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in
531 the archive (default for superuser).
532 -s, --preserve-order, --same-order
534 Sort names to extract to match archive
535 --sort=ORDER
537 When creating an archive, sort directory entries accord‐
538 ing to ORDER, which is one of none, name, or inode.
539 The default is --sort=none, which stores archive members
541 in the same order as returned by the operating system.
542 Using --sort=name ensures the member ordering in the cre‐
544 ated archive is uniform and reproducible.
545 Using --sort=inode reduces the number of disk seeks made
547 when creating the archive and thus can considerably speed
548 up archivation. This sorting order is supported only if
549 the underlying system provides the necessary information.
550 Extended file attributes
552 --acls Enable POSIX ACLs support.
553 --no-acls
555 Disable POSIX ACLs support.
556 --selinux
558 Enable SELinux context support.
559 --no-selinux
561 Disable SELinux context support.
562 --xattrs
564 Enable extended attributes support.
565 --no-xattrs
567 Disable extended attributes support.
568 --xattrs-exclude=PATTERN
570 Specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys. PATTERN is a
571 POSIX regular expression, e.g. --xattrs-exclude='^user.',
572 to exclude attributes from the user namespace.
573 --xattrs-include=PATTERN
575 Specify the include pattern for xattr keys. PATTERN is a
576 POSIX regular expression.
577 Device selection and switching
579 -f, --file=ARCHIVE
580 Use archive file or device ARCHIVE. If this option is
581 not given, tar will first examine the environment vari‐
582 able `TAPE'. If it is set, its value will be used as the
583 archive name. Otherwise, tar will assume the compiled-in
584 default. The default value can be inspected either using
585 the --show-defaults option, or at the end of the tar
586 --help output.
587 An archive name that has a colon in it specifies a file
589 or device on a remote machine. The part before the colon
590 is taken as the machine name or IP address, and the part
591 after it as the file or device pathname, e.g.:
592 --file=remotehost:/dev/sr0
594 An optional username can be prefixed to the hostname,
596 placing a @ sign between them.
597 By default, the remote host is accessed via the rsh(1)
599 command. Nowadays it is common to use ssh(1) instead.
600 You can do so by giving the following command line
601 option:
602 --rsh-command=/usr/bin/ssh
604 The remote machine should have the rmt(8) command
606 installed. If its pathname does not match tar's default,
607 you can inform tar about the correct pathname using the
608 --rmt-command option.
609 --force-local
611 Archive file is local even if it has a colon.
612 -F, --info-script=COMMAND, --new-volume-script=COMMAND
614 Run COMMAND at the end of each tape (implies -M). The
615 command can include arguments. When started, it will
616 inherit tar's environment plus the following variables:
617 TAR_VERSION
619 GNU tar version number.
620 TAR_ARCHIVE
622 The name of the archive tar is processing.
623 TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
625 Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte
626 blocks in a record.
627 TAR_VOLUME
629 Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing
630 (set if reading a multi-volume archive).
631 TAR_FORMAT
633 Format of the archive being processed. One of:
634 gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7.
635 TAR_SUBCOMMAND
637 A short option (with a leading dash) describing
638 the operation tar is executing.
639 TAR_FD File descriptor which can be used to communicate
641 the new volume name to tar.
642 If the info script fails, tar exits; otherwise, it begins
644 writing the next volume.
645 -L, --tape-length=N
647 Change tape after writing Nx1024 bytes. If N is followed
648 by a size suffix (see the subsection Size suffixes
649 below), the suffix specifies the multiplicative factor to
650 be used instead of 1024.
651 This option implies -M.
653 -M, --multi-volume
655 Create/list/extract multi-volume archive.
656 --rmt-command=COMMAND
658 Use COMMAND instead of rmt when accessing remote ar‐
659 chives. See the description of the -f option, above.
660 --rsh-command=COMMAND
662 Use COMMAND instead of rsh when accessing remote ar‐
663 chives. See the description of the -f option, above.
664 --volno-file=FILE
666 When this option is used in conjunction with --multi-vol‐
667 ume, tar will keep track of which volume of a multi-vol‐
668 ume archive it is working in FILE.
669 Device blocking
671 -b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS
672 Set record size to BLOCKSx512 bytes.
673 -B, --read-full-records
675 When listing or extracting, accept incomplete input
676 records after end-of-file marker.
677 -i, --ignore-zeros
679 Ignore zeroed blocks in archive. Normally two consecu‐
680 tive 512-blocks filled with zeroes mean EOF and tar stops
681 reading after encountering them. This option instructs
682 it to read further and is useful when reading archives
683 created with the -A option.
684 --record-size=NUMBER
686 Set record size. NUMBER is the number of bytes per
687 record. It must be multiple of 512. It can can be suf‐
688 fixed with a size suffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10
689 Kilobytes. See the subsection Size suffixes, for a list
690 of valid suffixes.
691 Archive format selection
693 -H, --format=FORMAT
694 Create archive of the given format. Valid formats are:
695 gnu GNU tar 1.13.x format
697 oldgnu GNU format as per tar <= 1.12.
699 pax, posix
701 POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format.
702 ustar POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format.
704 v7 Old V7 tar format.
706 --old-archive, --portability
708 Same as --format=v7.
709 --pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
711 Control pax keywords when creating PAX archives (-H pax).
712 This option is equivalent to the -o option of the
713 pax(1)utility.
714 --posix
716 Same as --format=posix.
717 -V, --label=TEXT
719 Create archive with volume name TEXT. If listing or
720 extracting, use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume
721 name.
722 Compression options
724 -a, --auto-compress
725 Use archive suffix to determine the compression program.
726 -I, --use-compress-program=COMMAND
728 Filter data through COMMAND. It must accept the -d
729 option, for decompression. The argument can contain com‐
730 mand line options.
731 -j, --bzip2
733 Filter the archive through bzip2(1).
734 -J, --xz
736 Filter the archive through xz(1).
737 --lzip Filter the archive through lzip(1).
739 --lzma Filter the archive through lzma(1).
741 --lzop Filter the archive through lzop(1).
743 --no-auto-compress
745 Do not use archive suffix to determine the compression
746 program.
747 -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
749 Filter the archive through gzip(1).
750 -Z, --compress, --uncompress
752 Filter the archive through compress(1).
753 --zstd Filter the archive through zstd(1).
755 Local file selection
757 --add-file=FILE
758 Add FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a
759 dash).
760 --backup[=CONTROL]
762 Backup before removal. The CONTROL argument, if sup‐
763 plied, controls the backup policy. Its valid values are:
764 none, off
766 Never make backups.
767 t, numbered
769 Make numbered backups.
770 nil, existing
772 Make numbered backups if numbered backups exist,
773 simple backups otherwise.
774 never, simple
776 Always make simple backups
777 If CONTROL is not given, the value is taken from the VER‐
779 SION_CONTROL environment variable. If it is not set,
780 existing is assumed.
781 -C, --directory=DIR
783 Change to DIR before performing any operations. This
784 option is order-sensitive, i.e. it affects all options
785 that follow.
786 --exclude=PATTERN
788 Exclude files matching PATTERN, a glob(3)-style wildcard
789 pattern.
790 --exclude-backups
792 Exclude backup and lock files.
793 --exclude-caches
795 Exclude contents of directories containing file
796 CACHEDIR.TAG, except for the tag file itself.
797 --exclude-caches-all
799 Exclude directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG and the
800 file itself.
801 --exclude-caches-under
803 Exclude everything under directories containing
804 CACHEDIR.TAG
805 --exclude-ignore=FILE
807 Before dumping a directory, see if it contains FILE. If
808 so, read exclusion patterns from this file. The patterns
809 affect only the directory itself.
810 --exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE
812 Same as --exclude-ignore, except that patterns from FILE
813 affect both the directory and all its subdirectories.
814 --exclude-tag=FILE
816 Exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except
817 for FILE itself.
818 --exclude-tag-all=FILE
820 Exclude directories containing FILE.
821 --exclude-tag-under=FILE
823 Exclude everything under directories containing FILE.
824 --exclude-vcs
826 Exclude version control system directories.
827 --exclude-vcs-ignores
829 Exclude files that match patterns read from VCS-specific
830 ignore files. Supported files are: .cvsignore, .gitig‐
831 nore, .bzrignore, and .hgignore.
832 -h, --dereference
834 Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point
835 to.
836 --hard-dereference
838 Follow hard links; archive and dump the files they refer
839 to.
840 -K, --starting-file=MEMBER
842 Begin at the given member in the archive.
843 --newer-mtime=DATE
845 Work on files whose data changed after the DATE. If DATE
846 starts with / or . it is taken to be a file name; the
847 mtime of that file is used as the date.
848 --no-null
850 Disable the effect of the previous --null option.
851 --no-recursion
853 Avoid descending automatically in directories.
854 --no-unquote
856 Do not unquote input file or member names.
857 --no-verbatim-files-from
859 Treat each line read from a file list as if it were sup‐
860 plied in the command line. I.e., leading and trailing
861 whitespace is removed and, if the resulting string begins
862 with a dash, it is treated as tar command line option.
863 This is the default behavior. The --no-verba‐
865 tim-files-from option is provided as a way to restore it
866 after --verbatim-files-from option.
867 This option is positional: it affects all --files-from
869 options that occur after it in, until --verba‐
870 tim-files-from option or end of line, whichever occurs
871 first.
872 It is implied by the --no-null option.
874 --null Instruct subsequent -T options to read null-terminated
876 names verbatim (disables special handling of names that
877 start with a dash).
878 See also --verbatim-files-from.
880 -N, --newer=DATE, --after-date=DATE
882 Only store files newer than DATE. If DATE starts with /
883 or . it is taken to be a file name; the ctime of that
884 file is used as the date.
885 --one-file-system
887 Stay in local file system when creating archive.
888 -P, --absolute-names
890 Don't strip leading slashes from file names when creating
891 archives.
892 --recursion
894 Recurse into directories (default).
895 --suffix=STRING
897 Backup before removal, override usual suffix. Default
898 suffix is ~, unless overridden by environment variable
899 SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.
900 -T, --files-from=FILE
902 Get names to extract or create from FILE.
903 Unless specified otherwise, the FILE must contain a list
905 of names separated by ASCII LF (i.e. one name per line).
906 The names read are handled the same way as command line
907 arguments. They undergo quote removal and word split‐
908 ting, and any string that starts with a - is handled as
909 tar command line option.
910 If this behavior is undesirable, it can be turned off
912 using the --verbatim-files-from option.
913 The --null option instructs tar that the names in FILE
915 are separated by ASCII NUL character, instead of LF. It
916 is useful if the list is generated by find(1) -print0
917 predicate.
918 --unquote
920 Unquote file or member names (default).
921 --verbatim-files-from
923 Treat each line obtained from a file list as a file name,
924 even if it starts with a dash. File lists are supplied
925 with the --files-from (-T) option. The default behavior
926 is to handle names supplied in file lists as if they were
927 typed in the command line, i.e. any names starting with a
928 dash are treated as tar options. The --verba‐
929 tim-files-from option disables this behavior.
930 This option affects all --files-from options that occur
932 after it in the command line. Its effect is reverted by
933 the --no-verbatim-files-from} option.
934 This option is implied by the --null option.
936 See also --add-file.
938 -X, --exclude-from=FILE
940 Exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE.
941 File name transformations
943 --strip-components=NUMBER
944 Strip NUMBER leading components from file names on
945 extraction.
946 --transform=EXPRESSION, --xform=EXPRESSION
948 Use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names.
949 File name matching options
951 These options affect both exclude and include patterns.
952 --anchored
954 Patterns match file name start.
955 --ignore-case
957 Ignore case.
958 --no-anchored
960 Patterns match after any / (default for exclusion).
961 --no-ignore-case
963 Case sensitive matching (default).
964 --no-wildcards
966 Verbatim string matching.
967 --no-wildcards-match-slash
969 Wildcards do not match /.
970 --wildcards
972 Use wildcards (default for exclusion).
973 --wildcards-match-slash
975 Wildcards match / (default for exclusion).
976 Informative output
978 --checkpoint[=N]
979 Display progress messages every Nth record (default 10).
980 --checkpoint-action=ACTION
982 Run ACTION on each checkpoint.
983 --clamp-mtime
985 Only set time when the file is more recent than what was
986 given with --mtime.
987 --full-time
989 Print file time to its full resolution.
990 --index-file=FILE
992 Send verbose output to FILE.
993 -l, --check-links
995 Print a message if not all links are dumped.
996 --no-quote-chars=STRING
998 Disable quoting for characters from STRING.
999 --quote-chars=STRING
1001 Additionally quote characters from STRING.
1002 --quoting-style=STYLE
1004 Set quoting style for file and member names. Valid val‐
1005 ues for STYLE are literal, shell, shell-always, c, c-
1006 maybe, escape, locale, clocale.
1007 -R, --block-number
1009 Show block number within archive with each message.
1010 --show-omitted-dirs
1012 When listing or extracting, list each directory that does
1013 not match search criteria.
1014 --show-transformed-names, --show-stored-names
1016 Show file or archive names after transformation by
1017 --strip and --transform options.
1018 --totals[=SIGNAL]
1020 Print total bytes after processing the archive. If SIG‐
1021 NAL is given, print total bytes when this signal is
1022 delivered. Allowed signals are: SIGHUP, SIGQUIT, SIGINT,
1023 SIGUSR1, and SIGUSR2. The SIG prefix can be omitted.
1024 --utc Print file modification times in UTC.
1026 -v, --verbose
1028 Verbosely list files processed. Each instance of this
1029 option on the command line increases the verbosity level
1030 by one. The maximum verbosity level is 3. For a
1031 detailed discussion of how various verbosity levels
1032 affect tar's output, please refer to GNU Tar Manual, sub‐
1033 section 2.5.1 "The --verbose Option".
1034 --warning=KEYWORD
1036 Enable or disable warning messages identified by KEYWORD.
1037 The messages are suppressed if KEYWORD is prefixed with
1038 no- and enabled otherwise.
1039 Multiple --warning messages accumulate.
1041 Keywords controlling general tar operation:
1043 all Enable all warning messages. This is the default.
1045 none Disable all warning messages.
1047 filename-with-nuls
1049 "%s: file name read contains nul character"
1050 alone-zero-block
1052 "A lone zero block at %s"
1053 Keywords applicable for tar --create:
1055 cachedir
1057 "%s: contains a cache directory tag %s; %s"
1058 file-shrank
1060 "%s: File shrank by %s bytes; padding with zeros"
1061 xdev "%s: file is on a different filesystem; not
1063 dumped"
1064 file-ignored
1066 "%s: Unknown file type; file ignored"
1067 "%s: socket ignored"
1068 "%s: door ignored"
1069 file-unchanged
1071 "%s: file is unchanged; not dumped"
1072 ignore-archive
1074 "%s: file is the archive; not dumped"
1075 file-removed
1077 "%s: File removed before we read it"
1078 file-changed
1080 "%s: file changed as we read it"
1081 failed-read
1083 Suppresses warnings about unreadable files or
1084 directories. This keyword applies only if used
1085 together with the --ignore-failed-read option.
1086 Keywords applicable for tar --extract:
1088 existing-file
1090 "%s: skipping existing file"
1091 timestamp
1093 "%s: implausibly old time stamp %s"
1094 "%s: time stamp %s is %s s in the future"
1095 contiguous-cast
1097 "Extracting contiguous files as regular files"
1098 symlink-cast
1100 "Attempting extraction of symbolic links as hard
1101 links"
1102 unknown-cast
1104 "%s: Unknown file type '%c', extracted as normal
1105 file"
1106 ignore-newer
1108 "Current %s is newer or same age"
1109 unknown-keyword
1111 "Ignoring unknown extended header keyword '%s'"
1112 decompress-program
1114 Controls verbose description of failures occurring
1115 when trying to run alternative decompressor pro‐
1116 grams. This warning is disabled by default
1117 (unless --verbose is used). A common example of
1118 what you can get when using this warning is:
1119 $ tar --warning=decompress-program -x -f archive.Z
1121 tar (child): cannot run compress: No such file or directory
1122 tar (child): trying gzip
1123 This means that tar first tried to decompress ar‐
1125 chive.Z using compress, and, when that failed,
1126 switched to gzip.
1127 record-size
1129 "Record size = %lu blocks"
1130 Keywords controlling incremental extraction:
1132 rename-directory
1134 "%s: Directory has been renamed from %s"
1135 "%s: Directory has been renamed"
1136 new-directory
1138 "%s: Directory is new"
1139 xdev "%s: directory is on a different device: not purg‐
1141 ing"
1142 bad-dumpdir
1144 "Malformed dumpdir: 'X' never used"
1145 -w, --interactive, --confirmation
1147 Ask for confirmation for every action.
1148 Compatibility options
1150 -o When creating, same as --old-archive. When extracting,
1151 same as --no-same-owner.
1152 Size suffixes
1154 Suffix Units Byte Equivalent
1155 b Blocks SIZE x 512
1156 B Kilobytes SIZE x 1024
1157 c Bytes SIZE
1158 G Gigabytes SIZE x 1024^3
1159 K Kilobytes SIZE x 1024
1160 k Kilobytes SIZE x 1024
1161 M Megabytes SIZE x 1024^2
1162 P Petabytes SIZE x 1024^5
1163 T Terabytes SIZE x 1024^4
1164 w Words SIZE x 2
1165
1167 Tar exit code indicates whether it was able to successfully per‐
1168 form the requested operation, and if not, what kind of error
1169 occurred.
1170 0 Successful termination.
1172 1 Some files differ. If tar was invoked with the --compare
1174 (--diff, -d) command line option, this means that some
1175 files in the archive differ from their disk counterparts.
1176 If tar was given one of the --create, --append or
1177 --update options, this exit code means that some files
1178 were changed while being archived and so the resulting
1179 archive does not contain the exact copy of the file set.
1180 2 Fatal error. This means that some fatal, unrecoverable
1182 error occurred.
1183 If a subprocess that had been invoked by tar exited with a
1185 nonzero exit code, tar itself exits with that code as well.
1186 This can happen, for example, if a compression option (e.g. -z)
1187 was used and the external compressor program failed. Another
1188 example is rmt failure during backup to a remote device.
1189
1191 bzip2(1), compress(1), gzip(1), lzma(1), lzop(1), rmt(8), sym‐
1192 link(7), xz(1), zstd(1).
1193 Complete tar manual: run info tar or use emacs(1) info mode to
1195 read it.
1196 Online copies of GNU tar documentation in various formats can be
1198 found at:
1199 http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual
1201
1203 Report bugs to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
1204
1206 Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1207 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
1208 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
1209 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute
1210 it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
1211TAR February 4, 2019 TAR(1)