gnutar - emulates the GNU version of the tar archiver

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-size"N

block size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)

-B, --read-full-blocks

reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)

-C, --directory"DIR

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-script"F

run script at end of each tape (implies -M)

-G, --incremental

create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup

-g, --listed-incremental"F

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-file"F

begin at file F in the archive

-l, --one-file-system

stay in local file system when creating an archive

-L, --tape-length"N

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, --newer"DATE

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, --label"NAME

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

--exclude"FILE

exclude file FILE

-X, --exclude-from"FILE

exclude files listed in FILE

-Z, --compress, --uncompress

filter the archive through compress

-z, --gzip, --ungzip

filter the archive through gzip

--use-compress-program"PROG

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.

Jorg 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