.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation -*- nroff -*- .\" See /usr/src/gnu/COPYING for conditions of redistribution .\" .\" Written by John F. Woods <jfw@jfwhome.funhouse.com> .\" Updated by Robert Eckardt <roberte@mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> .\" .\" $FreeBSD: src/gnu/usr.bin/tar/tar.1,v 1.40 2001/07/10 10:42:19 ru Exp $ .\" .Dd December 23, 2000 .Os .Dt TAR 1 .Sh NAME .Nm gnutar .Nd "tape archiver; manipulate ""tar"" archive files" .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar bundled-options Ar Args .Op Ar gnu-style-flags .Op Ar filenames | Fl C Ar directory-name .Ar ... .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm Tar is short for .Dq tape archiver , so named for historical reasons; the .Nm program creates, adds files to, or extracts files from an archive file in .Nm format, called a .Ar tarfile . A .Ar tarfile is often a magnetic tape, but can be a floppy diskette or any regular disk file. .Pp The first argument word of the .Nm command line is usually a command word of bundled function and modifier letters, optionally preceded by a dash; it must contain exactly one function letter from the set .Cm A , .Cm c , .Cm d , .Cm r , .Cm t , .Cm u , .Cm x , for .Em append , .Em create , .Em difference , .Em replace , .Em table of contents , .Em update , and .Em extract (further described below). The command word can also contain other function modifiers described below, some of which will take arguments from the command line in the order they are specified in the command word (review the .Sx EXAMPLES section). Functions and function modifiers can also be specified with the GNU argument convention (preceded by two dashes, one function or modifier per word. Command-line arguments that specify files to add to, extract from, or list from an archive may be given as shell pattern matching strings. .Sh FUNCTIONS Exactly one of the following functions must be specified. .Pp .Bl -tag -width "--concatenate" -compact .It Fl A .It Fl -catenate .It Fl "-concatenate" Append the contents of named file, which must itself be a .Nm archive, to the end of the archive (erasing the old end-of-archive block). This has the effect of adding the files contained in the named file to the first archive, rather than adding the second archive as an element of the first. .Em Note : This option requires a rewritable .Ar tarfile , and therefore does not work on quarter-inch cartridge tapes. .It Fl c .It Fl -create Create a new archive (or truncates an old one) and writes the named files to it. .It Fl d .It Fl -diff .It Fl -compare Find differences between files in the archive and corresponding files in the file system. .It Fl -delete Delete named files from the archive. (Does not work on quarter-inch tapes). .It Fl r .It Fl -append Append files to the end of an archive. (Does not work on quarter-inch tapes). .It Fl t .It Fl -list List the contents of an archive; if .Ar filename arguments are given, only those files are listed, otherwise the entire table of contents is listed. .It Fl u .It Fl -update Append the named files if the on-disk version has a modification date more recent than their copy in the archive (if any). Does not work on quarter-inch tapes. .It Fl x .It Fl -extract .It Fl -get Extract files from an archive. The owner, modification time, and file permissions are restored, if possible. If no .Ar file arguments are given, extract all the files in the archive. If a .Ar filename argument matches the name of a directory on the tape, that directory and its contents are extracted (as well as all directories under that directory). If the archive contains multiple entries corresponding to the same file (see the .Fl -append command above), the last one extracted will overwrite all earlier versions. .El .Sh OPTIONS The other options to .Nm may be combined arbitrarily; single-letter options may be bundled in with the command word. Verbose options which take arguments will be followed by the argument; single-letter options will consume successive command line arguments (see the .Sx EXAMPLES below). .Pp .Bl -tag -width "--preserve-permissions" -compact .It Fl -help Prints a message listing and briefly describing all the command options to .Nm . .It Fl -atime-preserve Restore the access times on files which are written to tape (note that this will change the inode-change time!). .It Fl b .It Fl -block-size Ar number .It Fl -blocking-factor Ar number .It Fl -record-size Ar size Sets the block size for reading or writing to .Ar number * 512-byte blocks. Or sets block size for reading or writing to .Ar size bytes which must be a multiple of 512. .It Fl B .It Fl -read-full-records Re-assemble short reads into full records (for reading .Bx 4.2 pipes). .It Fl -backup Ar control Backup files before removal. Optionally, the user can specify a .Ar control argument to control how .Nm performs the backups. Supported values are listed bellow in the .Sx ENVIRONMENT section. .It Fl -suffix Ar suffix Backup files before removal. Override the normal backup suffix (default: '~'), using .Ar suffix instead. .It Fl C Ar directory .It Fl -directory Ar directory Change to .Ar directory before processing the remaining arguments. .It Fl -checkpoint Print number of buffer reads/writes while reading/writing the archive. .It Fl f Xo .Oo Ar hostname : Oc Ns Ar file .Xc .It Fl -file Xo .Oo Ar hostname : Oc Ns Ar file .Xc Read or write the specified .Ar file (default is .Pa /dev/sa0 ) . If a .Ar hostname is specified, .Nm will use .Xr rmt 8 to read or write the specified .Ar file on a remote machine. .Dq Ar - may be used as a filename, for reading or writing to/from stdin/stdout. .It Fl -force-local Archive file is local even if it has a colon. .It Fl F Ar file .It Fl -info-script Ar file .It Fl -new-volume-script Ar file Run a script at the end of each archive volume (implies .Fl M ) . .It Fl G .It Fl -incremental Create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup. .It Fl g Ar file .It Fl -listed-incremental Ar file Create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup. .It Fl -group Ar name Force .Ar group as group for added files. .It Fl h .It Fl -dereference Don't write symlinks as symlinks; write the data of the files they name. .It Fl i .It Fl -ignore-zeros Ignore blocks of zeroes in archive (usually means End-Of-File). .It Fl -ignore-failed-read Don't exit with non-zero status on unreadable files. .It Fl j .It Fl -bzip2 Filter the archive through .Xr bzip2 1 . .It Fl k .It Fl -keep-old-files Keep files which already exist on disk; don't overwrite them from the archive. .It Fl K Ar file .It Fl -starting-file Ar file Begin at .Ar file in the archive. .It Fl l .It Fl -one-file-system Stay in local file system when creating an archive (do not cross mount points). .It Fl L Ar number .It Fl -tape-length Ar number Change tapes after writing .Ar number * 1024 bytes. .It Fl -mode Ar changes Force .Ar changes to file mode of added files. .It Fl m .It Fl -modification-time Don't extract file modified time. .It Fl M .It Fl -multi-volume Create/list/extract multi-volume archive. .It Fl -no-recursion Don't recurse into subdirectories when creating. .It Fl -volno-file Ar file File name with volume number to start with. .It Fl N Ar date .It Fl -after-date Ar date .It Fl -newer Ar date Only store files with creation time newer than .Ar date . .It Fl -newer-mtime Ar date Only store files with modification time newer than .Ar date . .It Fl -no-same-owner Do not preserve ownership when extracting files. Extract them all as owned by the current user. .It Fl -no-same-permissions Do not extract permission information. Extract them using the default permissions for the current user. .It Fl -numeric-owner Use numbers instead of names for owner/group names. .It Fl o .It Fl -old-archive .It Fl -portability Write a V7 format archive, rather than POSIX format. .It Fl O .It Fl -to-stdout Extract files to standard output. .It Fl -owner Ar name Force .Ar name as owner for added files. .It Fl -overwrite Overwrite existing files when extracting. .It Fl -overwrite-dir Overwrite directory metadata when extracting. .It Fl p .It Fl -same-permissions .It Fl -preserve-permissions Extract all permission information. .It Fl -preserve Has the effect of .Fl p s . .It Fl P .It Fl -absolute-names Don't strip leading .Ql / from file names. .It Fl R .It Fl -block-number Show record number within archive with each message. .It Fl -remove-files Remove files after adding them to the archive. .It Fl -rsh-command Ar command Use .Ar command instead of rsh for remote archives/files. .It Fl s .It Fl -same-order .It Fl -preserve-order List of names to extract is sorted to match archive. .It Fl -same-owner Try to preserve ownership when extracting files. .It Fl -show-omitted-dirs Show directories which were omitted while processing the archive. .It Fl S .It Fl -sparse Handle .Dq sparse files efficiently. .It Fl T Ar file .It Fl -files-from Ar file Get names of files to extract or create from .Ar file , one per line. .It Fl -null Modifies behavior of .Fl T to expect null-terminated names; disables .Fl C . .It Fl -totals Prints total bytes written with .Fl -create . .It Fl U .It Fl -unlink-first Unlink files before creating them. .It Fl -recursive-unlink Empty hierarchies prior to extracting directory. .It Fl v .It Fl -verbose Lists files written to archive with .Fl -create or extracted with .Fl -extract ; lists file protection information along with file names with .Fl -list . .It Fl V Ar volume-name .It Fl -label Ar volume-name Create archive with the given .Ar volume-name . When used with list or extract, .Ar volume-name is used as a globing pattern. .It Fl -version Print .Nm program version number. .It Fl w .It Fl -interactive .It Fl -confirmation Ask for confirmation for every action. .It Fl W .It Fl -verify Attempt to verify the archive after writing it. .It Fl -exclude Ar pattern Exclude files matching the .Ar pattern (don't extract them, don't add them, don't list them). .It Fl X Ar file .It Fl -exclude-from Ar file Exclude files listed in .Ar file . .It Fl -anchored Exclude patterns match file name start (default). .It Fl -no-anchored Exclude patterns match after any /. .It Fl -ignore-case Exclude patterns ignore case. .It Fl -no-ignore-case Exclude patterns are case sensitive (default). .It Fl -wildcards Exclude patterns use wildcards (default). .It Fl -no-wildcards Exclude patterns are plain strings. .It Fl -wildcards-match-slash Exclude pattern wildcards match '/' (default). .It Fl -no-wildcards-match-slash Exclude pattern wildcards do not match '/'. .It Fl Z .It Fl -compress .It Fl -uncompress Filter the archive through .Xr compress 1 . .It Fl z .It Fl -gzip .It Fl -ungzip .It Fl -gunzip Filter the archive through .Xr gzip 1 . .It Fl -use-compress-program Ar program Filter the archive through .Ar program (which must accept .Fl d to mean .Dq decompress ) . .It Fl Xo .Op Cm 0 Ns - Ns Cm 7 Ns .Op Cm lmh .Xc Specify tape drive and density. .El .Sh ENVIRONMENT The .Nm program examines the following environment variables. .Bl -tag -width "POSIXLY_CORRECT" .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT Normally, .Nm will process flag arguments that appear in the file list. If set in the environment, this causes .Nm to consider the first non-flag argument to terminate flag processing, as per the POSIX specification. .It Ev SHELL In interactive mode, a permissible response to the prompt is to request to spawn a subshell, which will be .Pa /bin/sh unless the .Ev SHELL variable is set. .It Ev SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX Sets the backup suffix used by .Nm . Default is '~'. .It Ev TAPE Changes .Nm Ns 's default tape drive (which is still overridden by the .Fl f flag). .It TAR_OPTIONS The environment variable .Ev TAR_OPTIONS can hold a set of default options for .Nm . These options are interpreted first and can be overwritten by explicit command line parameters. .It TAR_RSH The TAR_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as the transport for .Nm . .It Ev VERSION_CONTROL Sets the backup method used by .Nm . Possible values: .Bl -tag -width "--backup" .It t, numbered make numbered backups .It nil, existing numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise .It never, simple always make simple backups .El Default behaviour is 'existing'. .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width "/dev/sa0" .It Pa /dev/sa0 The default tape drive. .El .Sh EXAMPLES To create an archive on tape drive .Pa /dev/sa0 with a block size of 20 blocks, containing files named .Pa bert and .Pa ernie , you can enter .Dl "tar cfb /dev/sa0 20 bert ernie" or .Dl "tar --create --file /dev/sa0 --block-size 20 bert ernie" Note that the .Fl f and .Fl b flags both require arguments, which they take from the command line in the order they were listed in the command word. .Pp Because .Pa /dev/sa0 is the default device, and 20 is the default block size, the above example could have simply been .Dl "tar c bert ernie" .Pp To extract all the C sources and headers from an archive named .Pa backup.tar , type .Dl "tar xf backup.tar '*.[ch]'" Note that the pattern must be quoted to prevent the shell from attempting to expand it according the files in the current working directory (the shell does not have access to the list of files in the archive, of course). .Pp To move file hierarchies, use a command line like this: .Bd -literal tar -cf - -C srcdir . | tar xpf - -C destdir .Ed .Pp To create a compressed archive on diskette, using .Xr gzip 1 , use a command-line like .Dl "tar --block-compress -z -c -v -f /dev/fd1a -b 36 tar/" .Pp Note that you cannot mix bundled flags and .Fl -style flags; you can use single-letter flags in the manner above, rather than having to type .Dl "tar --block-compress --gzip --verbose --file /dev/fd1a --block-size 20 tar/" .Pp The above-created diskette can be listed with .Dl "tar tvfbz /dev/fd1a 36" .Pp To join two .Nm archives into a single archive, use .Dl "tar Af archive1.tar archive2.tar" which will add the files contained in .Pa archive2.tar onto the end of .Pa archive1.tar (note that this can't be done by simply typing .Dl "cat archive2.tar >> archive1.tar" because of the end-of-file block at the end of a .Nm archive). .Pp To archive all files from the directory .Pa srcdir , which were modified after Feb. 9th 1997, 13:00 h, use .Dl "tar -c -f backup.tar --newer-mtime 'Feb 9 13:15 1997' srcdir/" .Pp Other possible time specifications are .Sq "02/09/97 13:15" , .Sq "1997-02-09 13:15" , .Sq "13:15 9 Feb 1997" , .Sq "9 Feb 1997 13:15" , .Sq "Feb. 9, 1997 1:15pm" , .Sq "09-Feb" , .Sq "3 weeks ago" or .Sq "May first Sunday" . To specify the correct time zone use either e.g.\& .Sq "13:15 CEST" or .Sq "13:15+200" . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr bzip2 1 , .Xr compress 1 , .Xr gzip 1 , .Xr pax 1 , .Xr rmt 8 , info tar .Sh HISTORY The .Nm format has a rich history, dating back to Sixth Edition .Ux . The current implementation of .Nm is the GNU implementation, which originated as the public-domain .Nm written by .An John Gilmore . .Sh AUTHORS .An -nosplit A cast of thousands, including [as listed in the .Pa ChangeLog file in the source] .An John Gilmore (author of original public domain version), .An Jay Fenlason (first GNU author), .An Joy Kendall , .An Jim Kingdon , .An David J. MacKenzie , .An Michael I Bushnell , .An Noah Friedman , and innumerable others who have contributed fixes and additions. .Pp Man page obtained by the .Fx group from the .Nx 1.0 release. .Sh BUGS The .Fl C feature does not work like historical .Nm programs, and is probably untrustworthy. .Pp The .Fl A command should work to join an arbitrary number of .Nm archives together, but it does not; attempting to do so leaves the end-of-archive blocks in place for the second and subsequent archives. .Pp The .Nm file format is a semi fixed width field format, and the field for device numbers were designed for 16 bit (8 major, 8 minor) and can not absorb our 32 bit (8 major, 16+8 minor) numbers.