Operationmodifiers--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 snapshotfile, 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 exist when creating an archive, it
will be created and all files will be added to the resulting archive (the level0 dump). To
create incremental archives of non-zero level N, you need a copy of the snapshot file created for
level N-1, and use it as FILE.
When listing or extracting, the actual content 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 a 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.
--sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
Set which version of the sparse format to use. 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 GNUTarManual, appendix D, "SparseFormats". Using the info reader, it can be accessed running the
following command: infotar'SparseFormats'.
-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.
Overwritecontrol
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.
--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.
Outputstreamselection--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.
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, posix, ustar, v7.
TAR_SUBCOMMAND
A short option (with a leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.
Handlingoffileattributes--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:
OLDGRPNEWGRP[: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
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:
OLDUSRNEWUSR[: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
Set permissions of extracted files to those recorded in the archive (default for superuser).
--same-owner
Try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser).
-s, --preserve-order, --same-order
Tell tar that the list of file names to process is sorted in the same order as the files in the
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.
Extendedfileattributes--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 globbing pattern, e.g.
--xattrs-exclude='user.*' to include only attributes from the user namespace.
--xattrs-include=PATTERN
Specify the include pattern for xattr keys. PATTERN is a globbing pattern.
Deviceselectionandswitching-f, --file=ARCHIVE
Use archive file or device ARCHIVE. If this option is not given, 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
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
Sizesuffixes 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.
Deviceblocking-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 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 sizesuffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10 Kilobytes. See the subsection
Sizesuffixes, for a list of valid suffixes.
Archiveformatselection-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 (-Hpax). 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.
Compressionoptions-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).
-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).
Localfileselection--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.
-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
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
mtime of that file is used as the date.
--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.
See also --add-file.
-X, --exclude-from=FILE
Exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE.
Filenametransformations--strip-components=NUMBER
Strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction.
--transform=EXPRESSION, --xform=EXPRESSION
Use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names.
Filenamematchingoptions
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).
Informativeoutput--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.
--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 GNUTarManual, subsection 2.5.2
"The'--verbose'Option".
--warning=KEYWORD
Enable or disable warning messages identified by KEYWORD. The messages are suppressed if KEYWORD
is prefixed with no- and enabled otherwise.
Multiple --warning options 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: archive cannot contain itself; 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.
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"
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.
Compatibilityoptions-o When creating, same as --old-archive. When extracting, same as --no-same-owner.
SizesuffixesSuffixUnitsByteEquivalent
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
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