packages icon



 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



 NAME
      tar - an archiving utility

 SYNOPSIS
    Traditional usage
      tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]

    UNIX-style usage
      tar -A [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

      tar -c [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar -d [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar -t [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

      tar -r [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar -u [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar -x [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

    GNU-style usage
      tar {--catenate|--concatenate} [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

      tar --create [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar {--diff|--compare} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar --delete [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

      tar --append [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar --list [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

      tar --test-label [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [LABEL...]

      tar --update [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar --update [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

      tar {--extract|--get} [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

 NOTE
      This manpage is a short description of GNU tar.  For a detailed
      discussion, including examples and usage recommendations, refer to the
      GNU Tar Manual available in texinfo format.  If the info reader and
      the tar documentation are properly installed on your system, the
      command



                                    - 1 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



          info tar

      should give you access to the complete manual.

      You can also view the manual using the info mode in emacs(1), or find
      it in various formats online at

          http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

      If any discrepancies occur between this manpage and the GNU Tar
      Manual, the later shall be considered the authoritative source.

 DESCRIPTION
      GNU tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files in a
      single file (an archive), and to manipulate such archives.  The
      archive can be either a regular file or a device (e.g. a tape drive,
      hence the name of the program, which stands for tape archiver), which
      can be located either on the local or on a remote machine.

    Option styles
      Options to GNU tar can be given in three different styles.  In
      traditional style, the first argument is a cluster of option letters
      and all subsequent arguments supply arguments to those options that
      require them.  The arguments are read in the same order as the option
      letters.  Any command line words that remain after all options has
      been processed are treated as non-optional arguments: file or archive
      member names.

      For example, the c option requires creating the archive, the v option
      requests the verbose operation, and the f option takes an argument
      that sets the name of the archive to operate upon.  The following
      command, written in the traditional style, instructs tar to store all
      files from the directory /etc into the archive file etc.tar verbosely
      listing the files being archived:

      tar cfv etc.tar /etc

      In UNIX or short-option style, each option letter is prefixed with a
      single dash, as in other command line utilities.  If an option takes
      argument, the argument follows it, either as a separate command line
      word, or immediately following the option.  However, if the option
      takes an optional argument, the argument must follow the option letter
      without any intervening whitespace, as in -g/tmp/snar.db.

      Any number of options not taking arguments can be clustered together
      after a single dash, e.g. -vkp.  Options that take arguments (whether
      mandatory or optional), can appear at the end of such a cluster, e.g.
      -vkpf a.tar.




                                    - 2 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      The example command above written in the short-option style could look
      like:

      tar -cvf etc.tar /etc or tar -c -v -f etc.tar /etc

      In GNU or long-option style, each option begins with two dashes and
      has a meaningful name, consisting of lower-case letters and dashes.
      When used, the long option can be abbreviated to its initial letters,
      provided that this does not create ambiguity.  Arguments to long
      options are supplied either as a separate command line word,
      immediately following the option, or separated from the option by an
      equals sign with no intervening whitespace.  Optional arguments must
      always use the latter method.

      Here are several ways of writing the example command in this style:

      tar --create --file etc.tar --verbose /etc or (abbreviating some
      options): tar --cre --file=etc.tar --verb /etc

      The options in all three styles can be intermixed, although doing so
      with old options is not encouraged.

    Operation mode
      The options listed in the table below tell GNU tar what operation it
      is to perform.  Exactly one of them must be given.  Meaning of non-
      optional arguments depends on the operation mode requested.

      -A, --catenate, --concatenate
           Append archive to the end of another archive.  The arguments are
           treated as the names of archives to append.  All archives must be
           of the same format as the archive they are appended to, otherwise
           the resulting archive might be unusable with non-GNU
           implementations of tar.  Notice also that when more than one
           archive is given, the members from archives other than the first
           one will be accessible in the resulting archive only if using the
           -i (--ignore-zeros) option.

           Compressed archives cannot be concatenated.

      -c, --create
           Create a new archive.  Arguments supply the names of the files to
           be archived.  Directories are archived recursively, unless the
           --no-recursion option is given.

      -d, --diff, --compare
           Find differences between archive and file system.  The arguments
           are optional and specify archive members to compare.  If not
           given, the current working directory is assumed.




                                    - 3 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      --delete
           Delete from the archive.  The arguments supply names of the
           archive members to be removed.  At least one argument must be
           given.

           This option does not operate on compressed archives.  There is no
           short option equivalent.

      -r, --append
           Append files to the end of an archive.  Arguments have the same
           meaning as for -c (--create).

      -t, --list
           List the contents of an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When
           given, they specify the names of the members to list.

      --test-label
           Test the archive volume label and exit.  When used without
           arguments, it prints the volume label (if any) and exits with
           status 0.  When one or more command line arguments are given.
           tar compares the volume label with each argument.  It exits with
           code 0 if a match is found, and with code 1 otherwise.  No output
           is displayed, unless used together with the -v (--verbose)
           option.

           There is no short option equivalent for this option.

      -u, --update
           Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the
           archive.  Arguments have the same meaning as with -c and -r
           options.  Notice, that newer files don't replace their old
           archive copies, but instead are appended to the end of archive.
           The resulting archive can thus contain several members of the
           same name, corresponding to various versions of the same file.

      -x, --extract, --get
           Extract files from an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When
           given, they specify names of the archive members to be extracted.

    Operation modifiers
      --check-device
           Check device numbers when creating incremental archives
           (default).

      -g, --listed-incremental=FILE
           Handle new GNU-format incremental backups.  FILE is the name of a
           snapshot file, where tar stores additional information which is
           used to decide which files changed since the previous incremental
           dump and, consequently, must be dumped again.  If FILE does not



                                    - 4 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           exist when creating an archive, it will be created and all files
           will be added to the resulting archive (the level 0 dump).  To
           create incremental archives of non-zero level N, create a copy of
           the snapshot file created during the level N-1, and use it as
           FILE.

           When listing or extracting, the actual contents of FILE is not
           inspected, it is needed only due to syntactical requirements.  It
           is therefore common practice to use /dev/null in its place.

      --hole-detection=METHOD
           Use METHOD to detect holes in sparse files.  This option implies
           --sparse.  Valid values for METHOD are seek and raw.  Default is
           seek with fallback to raw when not applicable.

      -G, --incremental
           Handle old GNU-format incremental backups.

      --ignore-failed-read
           Do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files.

      --level=NUMBER
           Set dump level for created listed-incremental archive.  Currently
           only --level=0 is meaningful: it instructs tar to truncate the
           snapshot file before dumping, thereby forcing a level 0 dump.

      -n, --seek
           Assume the archive is seekable.  Normally tar determines
           automatically whether the archive can be seeked or not.  This
           option is intended for use in cases when such recognition fails.
           It takes effect only if the archive is open for reading (e.g.
           with --list or --extract options).

      --no-check-device
           Do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives.

      --no-seek
           Assume the archive is not seekable.

      --occurrence[=N]
           Process only the Nth occurrence of each file in the archive.
           This option is valid only when used with one of the following
           subcommands: --delete, --diff, --extract or --list and when a
           list of files is given either on the command line or via the -T
           option.  The default N is 1.

      --restrict
           Disable the use of some potentially harmful options.




                                    - 5 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      --sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
           Set version of the sparse format to use (implies --sparse).  This
           option implies --sparse.  Valid argument values are 0.0, 0.1, and
           1.0.  For a detailed discussion of sparse formats, refer to the
           GNU Tar Manual, appendix D, "Sparse Formats".  Using info reader,
           it can be accessed running the following command: info tar
           'Sparse Formats'.

      -S, --sparse
           Handle sparse files efficiently.  Some files in the file system
           may have segments which were actually never written (quite often
           these are database files created by such systems as DBM).  When
           given this option, tar attempts to determine if the file is
           sparse prior to archiving it, and if so, to reduce the resulting
           archive size by not dumping empty parts of the file.

    Overwrite control
      These options control tar actions when extracting a file over an
      existing copy on disk.

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

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

      --keep-directory-symlink
           Don't replace existing symlinks to directories when extracting.

      --no-overwrite-dir
           Preserve metadata of existing directories.

      --one-top-level[=DIR]
           Extract all files into DIR, or, if used without argument, into a
           subdirectory named by the base name of the archive (minus
           standard compression suffixes recognizable by --auto-compress).

      --overwrite
           Overwrite existing files when extracting.

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

      --recursive-unlink
           Recursively remove all files in the directory prior to extracting
           it.




                                    - 6 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      --remove-files
           Remove files from disk after adding them to the archive.

      --skip-old-files
           Don't replace existing files when extracting, silently skip over
           them.

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

      -W, --verify
           Verify the archive after writing it.

    Output stream selection
      --ignore-command-error

      Ignore subprocess exit codes.

      --no-ignore-command-error
           Treat non-zero exit codes of children as error (default).

      -O, --to-stdout
           Extract files to standard output.

      --to-command=COMMAND
           Pipe extracted files to COMMAND.  The argument is the pathname of
           an external program, optionally with command line arguments.  The
           program will be invoked and the contents of the file being
           extracted supplied to it on its standard input.  Additional data
           will be supplied via the following environment variables:

           TAR_FILETYPE
                Type of the file. It is a single letter with the following
                meaning:

                        f           Regular file
                        d           Directory
                        l           Symbolic link
                        h           Hard link
                        b           Block device
                        c           Character device

                Currently only regular files are supported.

           TAR_MODE
                File mode, an octal number.

           TAR_FILENAME
                The name of the file.



                                    - 7 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           TAR_REALNAME
                Name of the file as stored in the archive.

           TAR_UNAME
                Name of the file owner.

           TAR_GNAME
                Name of the file owner group.

           TAR_ATIME
                Time of last access. It is a decimal number, representing
                seconds since the Epoch.  If the archive provides times with
                nanosecond precision, the nanoseconds are appended to the
                timestamp after a decimal point.

           TAR_MTIME
                Time of last modification.

           TAR_CTIME
                Time of last status change.

           TAR_SIZE
                Size of the file.

           TAR_UID
                UID of the file owner.

           TAR_GID
                GID of the file owner.

           Additionally, the following variables contain information about
           tar operation mode and the archive being processed:

           TAR_VERSION
                GNU tar version number.

           TAR_ARCHIVE
                The name of the archive tar is processing.

           TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a
                record.

           TAR_VOLUME
                Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if
                reading a multi-volume archive).

           TAR_FORMAT
                Format of the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu,



                                    - 8 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



                posix, ustar, v7.  TAR_SUBCOMMAND A short option (with a
                leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.

    Handling of file attributes
      --atime-preserve[=METHOD]
           Preserve access times on dumped files, either by restoring the
           times after reading (METHOD=replace, this is the default) or by
           not setting the times in the first place (METHOD=system)

      --delay-directory-restore
           Delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted
           directories until the end of extraction.  Use this option when
           extracting from an archive which has unusual member ordering.

      --group=NAME[:GID]
           Force NAME as group for added files.  If GID is not supplied,
           NAME can be either a user name or numeric GID.  In this case the
           missing part (GID or name) will be inferred from the current
           host's group database.

           When used with --group-map=FILE, affects only those files whose
           owner group is not listed in FILE.

      --group-map=FILE
           Read group translation map from FILE.  Empty lines are ignored.
           Comments are introduced with # sign and extend to the end of
           line.  Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a
           single group.  It must consist of two fields, delimited by any
           amount of whitespace:

           OLDGRP NEWGRP[:NEWGID]

           OLDGRP is either a valid group name or a GID prefixed with +.
           Unless NEWGID is supplied, NEWGRP must also be either a valid
           group name or a +GID.  Otherwise, both NEWGRP and NEWGID need not
           be listed in the system group database.

           As a result, each input file with owner group OLDGRP will be
           stored in archive with owner group NEWGRP and GID NEWGID.

      --mode=CHANGES
           Force symbolic mode CHANGES for added files.

      --mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
           Set mtime for added files.  DATE-OR-FILE is either a date/time in
           almost arbitrary format, or the name of an existing file.  In the
           latter case the mtime of that file will be used.

      -m, --touch



                                    - 9 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           Don't extract file modified time.

      --no-delay-directory-restore
           Cancel the effect of the prior --delay-directory-restore option.

      --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).

      --numeric-owner
           Always use numbers for user/group names.

      --owner=NAME[:UID]
           Force NAME as owner for added files.  If UID is not supplied,
           NAME can be either a user name or numeric UID.  In this case the
           missing part (UID or name) will be inferred from the current
           host's user database.

           When used with --owner-map=FILE, affects only those files whose
           owner is not listed in FILE.

      --owner-map=FILE
           Read owner translation map from FILE.  Empty lines are ignored.
           Comments are introduced with # sign and extend to the end of
           line.  Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a
           single UID.  It must consist of two fields, delimited by any
           amount of whitespace:

           OLDUSR NEWUSR[:NEWUID]

           OLDUSR is either a valid user name or a UID prefixed with +.
           Unless NEWUID is supplied, NEWUSR must also be either a valid
           user name or a +UID.  Otherwise, both NEWUSR and NEWUID need not
           be listed in the system user database.

           As a result, each input file owned by OLDUSR will be stored in
           archive with owner name NEWUSR and UID NEWUID.

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

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




                                   - 10 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



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

      --sort=ORDER
           When creating an archive, sort directory entries according to
           ORDER, which is one of none, name, or inode.

           The default is --sort=none, which stores archive members in the
           same order as returned by the operating system.

           Using --sort=name ensures the member ordering in the created
           archive is uniform and reproducible.

           Using --sort=inode reduces the number of disk seeks made when
           creating the archive and thus can considerably speed up
           archivation.  This sorting order is supported only if the
           underlying system provides the necessary information.

    Extended file attributes
      --acls
           Enable POSIX ACLs support.

      --no-acls
           Disable POSIX ACLs support.

      --selinux
           Enable SELinux context support.

      --no-selinux
           Disable SELinux context support.

      --xattrs
           Enable extended attributes support.

      --no-xattrs
           Disable extended attributes support.

      --xattrs-exclude=PATTERN
           Specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX
           regular expression, e.g. --xattrs-exclude='^user.', to exclude
           attributes from the user namespace.

      --xattrs-include=PATTERN
           Specify the include pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX
           regular expression.

    Device selection and switching
      -f, --file=ARCHIVE
           Use archive file or device ARCHIVE.  If this option is not given,



                                   - 11 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           tar will first examine the environment variable `TAPE'.  If it is
           set, its value will be used as the archive name.  Otherwise, tar
           will assume the compiled-in default.  The default value can be
           inspected either using the --show-defaults option, or at the end
           of the tar --help output.

           An archive name that has a colon in it specifies a file or device
           on a remote machine.  The part before the colon is taken as the
           machine name or IP address, and the part after it as the file or
           device pathname, e.g.:

           --file=remotehost:/dev/sr0

           An optional username can be prefixed to the hostname, placing a @
           sign between them.

           By default, the remote host is accessed via the rsh(1) command.
           Nowadays it is common to use ssh(1) instead.  You can do so by
           giving the following command line option:

           --rsh-command=/usr/bin/ssh

           The remote machine should have the rmt(8) command installed.  If
           its pathname does not match tar's default, you can inform tar
           about the correct pathname using the --rmt-command option.

      --force-local
           Archive file is local even if it has a colon.

      -F, --info-script=COMMAND, --new-volume-script=COMMAND
           Run COMMAND at the end of each tape (implies -M).  The command
           can include arguments.  When started, it will inherit tar's
           environment plus the following variables:

           TAR_VERSION
                GNU tar version number.

           TAR_ARCHIVE
                The name of the archive tar is processing.

           TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a
                record.

           TAR_VOLUME
                Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if
                reading a multi-volume archive).

           TAR_FORMAT



                                   - 12 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



                Format of the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu,
                posix, ustar, v7.

           TAR_SUBCOMMAND
                A short option (with a leading dash) describing the
                operation tar is executing.

           TAR_FD
                File descriptor which can be used to communicate the new
                volume name to tar.

           If the info script fails, tar exits; otherwise, it begins writing
           the next volume.

      -L, --tape-length=N
           Change tape after writing Nx1024 bytes.  If N is followed by a
           size suffix (see the subsection Size suffixes below), the suffix
           specifies the multiplicative factor to be used instead of 1024.

           This option implies -M.

      -M, --multi-volume
           Create/list/extract multi-volume archive.

      --rmt-command=COMMAND
           Use COMMAND instead of rmt when accessing remote archives.  See
           the description of the -f option, above.

      --rsh-command=COMMAND
           Use COMMAND instead of rsh when accessing remote archives.  See
           the description of the -f option, above.

      --volno-file=FILE
           When this option is used in conjunction with --multi-volume, tar
           will keep track of which volume of a multi-volume archive it is
           working in FILE.

    Device blocking
      -b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS
           Set record size to BLOCKSx512 bytes.

      -B, --read-full-records
           When listing or extracting, accept incomplete input records after
           end-of-file marker.

      -i, --ignore-zeros
           Ignore zeroed blocks in archive.  Normally two consecutive 512-
           blocks filled with zeroes mean EOF and tar stops reading after
           encountering them.  This option instructs it to read further and



                                   - 13 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           is useful when reading archives created with the -A option.

      --record-size=NUMBER
           Set record size.  NUMBER is the number of bytes per record.  It
           must be multiple of 512.  It can can be suffixed with a size
           suffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10 Kilobytes.  See the
           subsection Size suffixes, for a list of valid suffixes.

    Archive format selection
      -H, --format=FORMAT
           Create archive of the given format.  Valid formats are:

           gnu  GNU tar 1.13.x format

           oldgnu
                GNU format as per tar <= 1.12.

           pax, posix
                POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format.

           ustar
                POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format.

           v7   Old V7 tar format.

      --old-archive, --portability
           Same as --format=v7.

      --pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
           Control pax keywords when creating PAX archives (-H pax).  This
           option is equivalent to the -o option of the pax(1)utility.

      --posix
           Same as --format=posix.

      -V, --label=TEXT
           Create archive with volume name TEXT.  If listing or extracting,
           use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume name.

    Compression options
      -a, --auto-compress
           Use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

      -I, --use-compress-program=COMMAND
           Filter data through COMMAND.  It must accept the -d option, for
           decompression.  The argument can contain command line options.

      -j, --bzip2
           Filter the archive through bzip2(1).



                                   - 14 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      -J, --xz
           Filter the archive through xz(1).

      --lzip
           Filter the archive through lzip(1).

      --lzma
           Filter the archive through lzma(1).

      --lzop
           Filter the archive through lzop(1).

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

      -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
           Filter the archive through gzip(1).

      -Z, --compress, --uncompress
           Filter the archive through compress(1).

      --zstd
           Filter the archive through zstd(1).

    Local file selection
      --add-file=FILE
           Add FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash).

      --backup[=CONTROL]
           Backup before removal.  The CONTROL argument, if supplied,
           controls the backup policy.  Its valid values are:

           none, off
                Never make backups.

           t, numbered
                Make numbered backups.

           nil, existing
                Make numbered backups if numbered backups exist, simple
                backups otherwise.

           never, simple
                Always make simple backups

           If CONTROL is not given, the value is taken from the
           VERSION_CONTROL environment variable.  If it is not set, existing
           is assumed.




                                   - 15 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      -C, --directory=DIR
           Change to DIR before performing any operations.  This option is
           order-sensitive, i.e. it affects all options that follow.

      --exclude=PATTERN
           Exclude files matching PATTERN, a glob(3)-style wildcard pattern.

      --exclude-backups
           Exclude backup and lock files.

      --exclude-caches
           Exclude contents of directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG,
           except for the tag file itself.

      --exclude-caches-all
           Exclude directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG and the file
           itself.

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

      --exclude-ignore=FILE
           Before dumping a directory, see if it contains FILE.  If so, read
           exclusion patterns from this file.  The patterns affect only the
           directory itself.

      --exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE
           Same as --exclude-ignore, except that patterns from FILE affect
           both the directory and all its subdirectories.

      --exclude-tag=FILE
           Exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except for FILE
           itself.

      --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.

      --exclude-vcs-ignores
           Exclude files that match patterns read from VCS-specific ignore
           files.  Supported files are: .cvsignore, .gitignore, .bzrignore,
           and .hgignore.

      -h, --dereference



                                   - 16 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to.

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

      -K, --starting-file=MEMBER
           Begin at the given member in the archive.

      --newer-mtime=DATE
           Work on files whose data changed after the DATE.  If DATE starts
           with / or . it is taken to be a file name; the mtime of that file
           is used as the date.

      --no-null
           Disable the effect of the previous --null option.

      --no-recursion
           Avoid descending automatically in directories.

      --no-unquote
           Do not unquote input file or member names.

      --no-verbatim-files-from
           Treat each line read from a file list as if it were supplied in
           the command line.  I.e., leading and trailing whitespace is
           removed and, if the resulting string begins with a dash, it is
           treated as tar command line option.

           This is the default behavior.  The --no-verbatim-files-from
           option is provided as a way to restore it after
           --verbatim-files-from option.

           This option is positional: it affects all --files-from options
           that occur after it in, until --verbatim-files-from option or end
           of line, whichever occurs first.

           It is implied by the --no-null option.

      --null
           Instruct subsequent -T options to read null-terminated names
           verbatim (disables special handling of names that start with a
           dash).

           See also --verbatim-files-from.

      -N, --newer=DATE, --after-date=DATE
           Only store files newer than DATE.  If DATE starts with / or . it
           is taken to be a file name; the ctime of that file is used as the
           date.



                                   - 17 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      --one-file-system
           Stay in local file system when creating archive.

      -P, --absolute-names
           Don't strip leading slashes from file names when creating
           archives.

      --recursion
           Recurse into directories (default).

      --suffix=STRING
           Backup before removal, override usual suffix.  Default suffix is
           ~, unless overridden by environment variable
           SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.

      -T, --files-from=FILE
           Get names to extract or create from FILE.

           Unless specified otherwise, the FILE must contain a list of names
           separated by ASCII LF (i.e. one name per line).  The names read
           are handled the same way as command line arguments.  They undergo
           quote removal and word splitting, and any string that starts with
           a - is handled as tar command line option.

           If this behavior is undesirable, it can be turned off using the
           --verbatim-files-from option.

           The --null option instructs tar that the names in FILE are
           separated by ASCII NUL character, instead of LF.  It is useful if
           the list is generated by find(1) -print0 predicate.

      --unquote
           Unquote file or member names (default).

      --verbatim-files-from
           Treat each line obtained from a file list as a file name, even if
           it starts with a dash.  File lists are supplied with the
           --files-from (-T) option.  The default behavior is to handle
           names supplied in file lists as if they were typed in the command
           line, i.e. any names starting with a dash are treated as tar
           options.  The --verbatim-files-from option disables this
           behavior.

           This option affects all --files-from options that occur after it
           in the command line.  Its effect is reverted by the
           --no-verbatim-files-from} option.

           This option is implied by the --null option.




                                   - 18 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           See also --add-file.

      -X, --exclude-from=FILE
           Exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE.

    File name transformations
      --strip-components=NUMBER
           Strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction.

      --transform=EXPRESSION, --xform=EXPRESSION
           Use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names.

    File name matching options
      These options affect both exclude and include patterns.

      --anchored
           Patterns match file name start.

      --ignore-case
           Ignore case.

      --no-anchored
           Patterns match after any / (default for exclusion).

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

      --no-wildcards
           Verbatim string matching.

      --no-wildcards-match-slash
           Wildcards do not match /.

      --wildcards
           Use wildcards (default for exclusion).

      --wildcards-match-slash
           Wildcards match / (default for exclusion).

    Informative output
      --checkpoint[=N]
           Display progress messages every Nth record (default 10).

      --checkpoint-action=ACTION
           Run ACTION on each checkpoint.

      --clamp-mtime
           Only set time when the file is more recent than what was given
           with --mtime.



                                   - 19 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      --full-time
           Print file time to its full resolution.

      --index-file=FILE
           Send verbose output to FILE.

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

      --no-quote-chars=STRING
           Disable quoting for characters from STRING.

      --quote-chars=STRING
           Additionally quote characters from STRING.

      --quoting-style=STYLE
           Set quoting style for file and member names.  Valid values for
           STYLE are literal, shell, shell-always, c, c-maybe, escape,
           locale, clocale.

      -R, --block-number
           Show block number within archive with each message.

      --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 by --strip and
           --transform options.

      --totals[=SIGNAL]
           Print total bytes after processing the archive.  If SIGNAL is
           given, print total bytes when this signal is delivered.  Allowed
           signals are: SIGHUP, SIGQUIT, SIGINT, SIGUSR1, and SIGUSR2.  The
           SIG prefix can be omitted.

      --utc
           Print file modification times in UTC.

      -v, --verbose
           Verbosely list files processed.  Each instance of this option on
           the command line increases the verbosity level by one.  The
           maximum verbosity level is 3.  For a detailed discussion of how
           various verbosity levels affect tar's output, please refer to GNU
           Tar Manual, subsection 2.5.1 "The --verbose Option".

      --warning=KEYWORD
           Enable or disable warning messages identified by KEYWORD.  The



                                   - 20 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           messages are suppressed if KEYWORD is prefixed with no- and
           enabled otherwise.

           Multiple --warning messages accumulate.

           Keywords controlling general tar operation:

           all  Enable all warning messages.  This is the default.

           none Disable all warning messages.

           filename-with-nuls
                "%s: file name read contains nul character"

           alone-zero-block
                "A lone zero block at %s"

           Keywords applicable for tar --create:

           cachedir
                "%s: contains a cache directory tag %s; %s"

           file-shrank
                "%s: File shrank by %s bytes; padding with zeros"

           xdev "%s: file is on a different filesystem; not dumped"

           file-ignored
                "%s: Unknown file type; file ignored"
                "%s: socket ignored"
                "%s: door ignored"

           file-unchanged
                "%s: file is unchanged; not dumped"

           ignore-archive
                "%s: file is the archive; not dumped"

           file-removed
                "%s: File removed before we read it"

           file-changed
                "%s: file changed as we read it"

           failed-read
                Suppresses warnings about unreadable files or directories.
                This keyword applies only if used together with the
                --ignore-failed-read option.




                                   - 21 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           Keywords applicable for tar --extract:

           existing-file
                "%s: skipping existing file"

           timestamp
                "%s: implausibly old time stamp %s"
                "%s: time stamp %s is %s s in the future"

           contiguous-cast
                "Extracting contiguous files as regular files"

           symlink-cast
                "Attempting extraction of symbolic links as hard links"

           unknown-cast
                "%s: Unknown file type '%c', extracted as normal file"

           ignore-newer
                "Current %s is newer or same age"

           unknown-keyword
                "Ignoring unknown extended header keyword '%s'"

           decompress-program
                Controls verbose description of failures occurring when
                trying to run alternative decompressor programs.  This
                warning is disabled by default (unless --verbose is used).
                A common example of what you can get when using this warning
                is:

                $ tar --warning=decompress-program -x -f archive.Z tar
                (child): cannot run compress: No such file or directory tar
                (child): trying gzip

                This means that tar first tried to decompress archive.Z
                using compress, and, when that failed, switched to gzip.

           record-size
                "Record size = %lu blocks"

           Keywords controlling incremental extraction:

           rename-directory
                "%s: Directory has been renamed from %s"
                "%s: Directory has been renamed"

           new-directory
                "%s: Directory is new"



                                   - 22 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



           xdev "%s: directory is on a different device: not purging"

           bad-dumpdir
                "Malformed dumpdir: 'X' never used"

      -w, --interactive, --confirmation
           Ask for confirmation for every action.

    Compatibility options
      -o   When creating, same as --old-archive.  When extracting, same as
           --no-same-owner.

    Size suffixes
              Suffix    Units                   Byte Equivalent
              b         Blocks                  SIZE x 512
              B         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
              c         Bytes                   SIZE
              G         Gigabytes               SIZE x 1024^3
              K         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
              k         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
              M         Megabytes               SIZE x 1024^2
              P         Petabytes               SIZE x 1024^5
              T         Terabytes               SIZE x 1024^4
              w         Words                   SIZE x 2

 RETURN VALUE
      Tar exit code indicates whether it was able to successfully perform
      the requested operation, and if not, what kind of error occurred.

      0    Successful termination.

      1    Some files differ. If tar was invoked with the --compare (--diff,
           -d) command line option, this means that some files in the
           archive differ from their disk counterparts.  If tar was given
           one of the --create, --append or --update options, this exit code
           means that some files were changed while being archived and so
           the resulting archive does not contain the exact copy of the file
           set.

      2    Fatal error. This means that some fatal, unrecoverable error
           occurred.

      If a subprocess that had been invoked by tar exited with a nonzero
      exit code, tar itself exits with that code as well.  This can happen,
      for example, if a compression option (e.g. -z) was used and the
      external compressor program failed.  Another example is rmt failure
      during backup to a remote device.

 SEE ALSO



                                   - 23 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024






 TAR(1)                              TAR                              TAR(1)
 GNU TAR Manual                                               GNU TAR Manual

                              February 4, 2019



      bzip2(1), compress(1), gzip(1), lzma(1), lzop(1), rmt(8), symlink(7),
      xz(1), zstd(1).

      Complete tar manual: run info tar or use emacs(1) info mode to read
      it.

      Online copies of GNU tar documentation in various formats can be found
      at:

          http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

 BUG REPORTS
      Report bugs to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.

 COPYRIGHT
      Copyright c 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
      License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
      <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
      This is free software: you are free to  change  and  redistribute  it.
      There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
































                                   - 24 -        Formatted:  October 4, 2024