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Manual Reference Pages  - GNUTAR (1)

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gnutar - emulates the GNU version of the tar archiver

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Command
Options
Examples
Environment
Files
Diagnostics
Notes
Bugs
Author

gnutar command [ options ] file1 ... filen

This manual page documents the GNU version of tar, an archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as a tarfile. A tarfile may be made on a tape drive, however, it is also common to write a tarfile to a normal file. The first argument to gnutar must be one of the options: Acdrtux, followed by any optional functions. The final arguments to gnutar are the names of the files or directories which should be archived. The use of a directory name always implies that the subdirectories below should be included in the archive.

One of the following commands must be used: -A, --catenate, --concatenate
	append tar files to an archive
-c, --create
	create a new archive
-d, --diff, --compare
	find differences between archive and file system
--delete
	delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)
-r, --append
	append files to the end of an archive
-t, --list
	list the contents of an archive
-u, --update
	only append files that are newer than copy in archive
-x, --extract, --get
	extract files from an archive

--atime-preserve
	don’t change access times on dumped files
-b, --block-sizeN
	block size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)
-B, --read-full-blocks
	reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)
-C, --directoryDIR
	change to directory DIR
--checkpoint
	print directory names while reading the archive
-f, --file[HOSTNAME:]F
	use archive file or device F (default /dev/rmt0)
--force-local
	archive file is local even if has a colon
-F, --info-script F, --new-volume-scriptF
	run script at end of each tape (implies -M)
-G, --incremental
	create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup
-g, --listed-incrementalF
	create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup
-h, --dereference
	don’t dump symlinks; dump the files they point to
-i, --ignore-zeros
	ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF)
-j, --bzip
	filter the archive through bzip2.
--ignore-failed-read
	don’t exit with non-zero status on unreadable files
-k, --keep-old-files
	keep existing files; don’t overwrite them from archive
-K, --starting-fileF
	begin at file F in the archive
-l, --one-file-system
	stay in local file system when creating an archive
-L, --tape-lengthN
	change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes
-m, --modification-time
	don’t extract file modified time
-M, --multi-volume
	create/list/extract multi-volume archive
-N, --after-date DATE, --newerDATE
	only store files newer than DATE
-o, --old-archive, --portability
	write a V7 format archive, rather than ANSI format
-O, --to-stdout
	extract files to standard output
-p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions
	extract all protection information
-P, --absolute-paths
	don’t strip leading ‘/’s from file names
--preserve
	like -p -s.
-R, --record-number
	show record number within archive with each message
--remove-files
	remove files after adding them to the archive
-s, --same-order, --preserve-order
	list of names to extract is sorted to match archive
--same-owner
	create extracted files with the same ownership
-S, --sparse
	handle sparse files efficiently
-T, --files-from=F
	get names to extract or create from file F
--null
	-T reads null-terminated names, disable -C
--totals
	print total bytes written with --create
-v, --verbose
	verbosely list files processed
-V, --labelNAME
	create archive with volume name NAME
--version
	print gnutar program version number
-w, --interactive, --confirmation
	ask for confirmation for every action
-W, --verify
	attempt to verify the archive after writing it
--excludeFILE
	exclude file FILE
-X, --exclude-fromFILE
	exclude files listed in FILE
-Z, --compress, --uncompress
	filter the archive through compress
-z, --gzip, --ungzip
	filter the archive through gzip
--use-compress-programPROG
	filter the archive through PROG (which must accept -d)

The extended options are options taken from star.

--help	Prints a summary of the most important options for gnutar(1) and exits.
--xhelp	Prints a summary of the less important options for gnutar(1) and exits.
--version
	Prints the gnutar version number string and exists.
--debug	print additional debug messages
xdebug=# xd=#
	set extended debug level
-/	don’t strip leading ’/’s from file names
-..	don’t skip filenames that contain ’..’ in non-interactive extract
--secure-links
	don’t extract links that start with ’/’ or contain ’..’
--acl	handle access control lists
--xfflags
	handle extended file flags
bs=#	set (output) block size to #
fs=#	set fifo size to #
--no-fsync
	do not call fsync() for each extracted file (may be dangerous)
--time	print timing info
--no-statistics
	do not print statistics
--fifostats
	print fifo statistics
--no-fifo	don’t use a fifo to optimize data flow from/to tape
--numeric
	don’t use user/group name from tape

The options above are not defined by GNU tar.

For a complete documentation of the star based optione check star(1).

spax(1), suntar(1), scpio(1), tar(1), cpio(1), pax(1), rcp(1), mt(1), rmt(1), match(1), dd(1), sdd(1), rsh(1), ssh(1), star(1), star(4/5), rcmd(3), fssnap(1m)

This gnutar implementation is based on the star implementation and does not implement all features of the original GNU tar program.

J..org Schilling
Seestr. 110
D-13353 Berlin
Germany

Mail bugs and suggestions to:

schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de or js@cs.tu-berlin.de or joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de