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1.1 root 1: .\" Copyright (c) 1990 Regents of the University of California.
2: .\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
3: .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
4: .\"
5: .\" @(#)tar.1 6.9 (Berkeley) 6/24/90
6: .\"
7: .TH TAR 1 "%Q"
8: .AT 3
9: .SH NAME
10: tar \- tape archiver
11: .SH SYNOPSIS
12: .B tar
13: [ key ] [ name ... ]
14: .SH DESCRIPTION
15: .PP
16: .I Tar
17: saves and restores multiple files on a single file (usually a magnetic
18: tape, but it can be any file).
19: .IR Tar 's
20: actions are controlled by the
21: .I key
22: argument. The
23: .I key
24: is a string of characters containing at most one function letter and possibly
25: one or more function modifiers. Other arguments to
26: .I tar
27: are file or directory names specifying which files to dump or restore.
28: In all cases, appearance of a directory name refers to
29: the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that directory.
30: .PP
31: The function portion of the key is specified by one of the following letters:
32: .TP 8
33: .B r
34: The named files are written on the end of the tape. The
35: .B c
36: function implies this.
37: .TP 8
38: .B x
39: The named files are extracted from the tape. If the named file
40: matches a directory whose contents had been written onto the tape, this
41: directory is (recursively) extracted. The owner, modification time, and mode
42: are restored (if possible). If no file argument is given, the entire content
43: of the tape is extracted. Note that if multiple entries specifying the same
44: file are on the tape, the last one overwrites all earlier.
45: .TP 8
46: .B t
47: The names of the specified files are listed each time they occur on
48: the tape. If no file argument is given, all of the names on the tape
49: are listed.
50: .TP 8
51: .B u
52: The named files are added to the tape if either they are not
53: already there or have been modified since last put on the tape.
54: .TP 8
55: .B c
56: Create a new tape; writing begins on the beginning of the tape
57: instead of after the last file. This command implies
58: .BR r .
59: .PP
60: The following characters may be used in addition to the letter
61: which selects the function desired.
62: .TP 10
63: .B o
64: On output, tar normally places information specifying owner and modes
65: of directories in the archive. Former versions of tar, when encountering
66: this information will give error message of the form
67: .br
68: "<name>/: cannot create".
69: .br
70: This modifier will suppress the directory information.
71: .TP 10
72: .B p
73: This modifier says to restore files to their original modes,
74: ignoring the present
75: .IR umask (2).
76: Setuid and sticky information
77: will also be restored to the super-user.
78: .TP 10
79: .B 0, ..., 9
80: This modifier selects an alternate drive on which the tape is mounted.
81: The default is drive 0 at 1600 bpi, which is normally /dev/rmt8.
82: .TP 10
83: .B v
84: Normally
85: .I tar
86: does its work silently. The
87: .B v
88: (verbose) option makes
89: .I tar
90: print the name of each file it treats preceded by the function
91: letter. With the
92: .B t
93: function, the verbose option
94: gives more information about the tape entries than just their names.
95: .TP 10
96: .B w
97: .I Tar
98: prints the action to be taken followed by file name, then
99: wait for user confirmation. If a word beginning with `y'
100: is given, the action is done. Any other input means don't do it.
101: .TP 10
102: .B f
103: .I Tar
104: uses the next argument as the name of the archive instead of
105: /dev/rmt?. If the name of the file is `\-', tar writes to standard output or
106: reads from standard input, whichever is appropriate. Thus,
107: .I tar
108: can be used as the head or tail of a filter chain.
109: .I Tar
110: can also be used to move hierarchies with the command
111: .ce 1
112: cd fromdir; tar cf - . | (cd todir; tar xf -)
113: .TP 10
114: .B b
115: .I Tar
116: uses the next argument as the blocking factor for tape records. The
117: default is 20 (the maximum). This option should only be used with raw magnetic
118: tape archives (See
119: .B f
120: above). The block size is determined automatically
121: when reading tapes (key letters `x' and `t').
122: .TP 10
123: .B s
124: tells tar to strip off any leading slashes from pathnames.
125: .TP 10
126: .B l
127: tells
128: .I tar
129: to complain if it cannot resolve all of the links to the
130: files dumped. If this is not specified, no error messages are printed.
131: .TP 10
132: .B m
133: tells
134: .I tar
135: not to restore the modification times. The modification time
136: will be the time of extraction.
137: .TP 10
138: .B h
139: Force
140: .I tar
141: to follow symbolic links as if they were normal files or
142: directories. Normally,
143: .I tar
144: does not follow symbolic links.
145: .TP 10
146: .B B
147: Forces input and output blocking to 20 blocks per record. This option
148: was added so that
149: .I tar
150: can work across a communications channel where the blocking may not
151: be maintained.
152: .TP 10
153: .B C
154: If a file name is preceded by
155: .BR \-C ,
156: then
157: .I tar
158: will perform a
159: .IR chdir (2)
160: to that file name. This allows multiple directories not
161: related by a close common parent to be archived using short
162: relative path names. For example, to archive files from /usr/include
163: and from /etc, one might use
164: .ti +0.5i
165: tar c -C /usr include -C / etc
166: .PP
167: Previous restrictions dealing with
168: .IR tar 's
169: inability to properly handle blocked archives have been lifted.
170: .PP
171: .SH FILES
172: /dev/rmt?
173: .br
174: /tmp/tar*
175: .SH "SEE ALSO"
176: tar.format(5)
177: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
178: Complaints about bad key characters and tape read/write errors.
179: .br
180: Complaints if enough memory is not available to hold the link tables.
181: .SH BUGS
182: There is no way to ask for the
183: .IR n -th
184: occurrence of a file.
185: .br
186: Tape errors are handled ungracefully.
187: .br
188: The
189: .B u
190: option can be slow.
191: .br
192: The current limit on file name length is 100 characters.
193: .br
194: There is no way selectively to follow symbolic links.
195: .br
196: When extracting tapes created with the
197: .B r
198: or
199: .B u
200: options, directory modification times may not be set correctly.
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