man(1) Manual page archive


     TAR(1)                                                     TAR(1)

     NAME
          tar - archiver

     SYNOPSIS
          tar key [ file ... ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Tar saves and restores file trees.  It is most often used to
          transport a tree of files from one system to another.  The
          key is a string that contains at most one function letter
          plus optional modifiers.  Other arguments to the command are
          names of files or directories to be dumped or restored.  A
          directory name implies all the contained files and subdirec-
          tories (recursively).

          The function is one of the following letters:

          c    Create a new archive with the given files as contents.

          x    Extract the named files from the archive.  If a file is
               a directory, the directory is extracted recursively.
               Modes are restored if possible.  If no file argument is
               given, extract the entire archive.  If the archive con-
               tains multiple entries for a file, the latest one wins.

          t    List all occurrences of each file in the archive, or of
               all files if there are no file arguments.

          r    The named files are appended to the archive.

          The modifiers are:

          v    (verbose) Print the name of each file treated preceded
               by the function letter.  With t, give more details
               about the archive entries.

          f    Use the next argument as the name of the archive
               instead of the default standard input (for keys x and
               t) or standard output (for keys c and r).

     EXAMPLES
          Tar can be used to move hierarchies thus:

               {cd fromdir; tar c .} | {cd todir; tar x}

     SEE ALSO
          ar(1), bundle(1)

     BUGS
          There is no way to ask for any but the last occurrence of a

     TAR(1)                                                     TAR(1)

          file.
          File path names are limited to 100 characters.
          The tar format allows specification of links and symbolic
          links, concepts foreign to Plan 9: they are ignored.