GNU tar: an archiver tool

FTP release, version 1.13, 16 June 1999

• Introduction
  • Some Definitions
  • What tar Does
  • How tar Archives are Named
  • POSIX Compliance
  • GNU tar Authors
  • Reporting bugs or suggestions
• Tutorial Introduction to tar
  • Basic tar Operations and Options
  • The Three Most Frequently Used Operations
  • Two Frequently Used Options
    • The `--file' Option
    • The `--verbose' Option
    • Getting Help: Using the --help Option
  • How to Create Archives
    • Preparing a Practice Directory for Examples
    • Creating the Archive
    • Running `--create' with `--verbose'
    • Short Forms with `create'
    • Archiving Directories
  • How to List Archives
    • Listing the Contents of a Stored Directory
  • How to Extract Members from an Archive
    • Extracting an Entire Archive
    • Extracting Specific Files
    • Extracting Files that are Directories
    • Commands That Will Fail
  • Going Further Ahead in this Manual
• Invoking GNU tar
  • General Synopsis of tar
  • Using tar Options
  • The Three Option Styles
    • Mnemonic Option Style
    • Short Option Style
    • Old Option Style
    • Mixing Option Styles
  • All tar Options
    • Operations
    • tar Options
    • Short Options Cross Reference
  • GNU tar documentation
  • Checking tar progress
  • Asking for Confirmation During Operations
• GNU tar Operations
  • Basic GNU tar Operations
  • Advanced GNU tar Operations
    • The Five Advanced tar Operations
    • How to Add Files to Existing Archives: --append
      • Appending Files to an Archive
      • Multiple Files with the Same Name
    • Updating an Archive
      • How to Update an Archive Using --update
    • Combining Archives with --concatenate
    • Removing Archive Members Using `--delete'
    • Comparing Archive Members with the File System
  • Options Used by --extract
    • Options to Help Read Archives
      • Reading Full Records
      • Ignoring Blocks of Zeros
      • Ignore Fail Read
    • Changing How tar Writes Files
      • Options to Prevent Overwriting Files
      • Keep Old Files
      • Unlink First
      • Recursive Unlink
      • Setting Modification Times
      • Setting Access Permissions
      • Writing to Standard Output
      • Removing Files
    • Coping with Scarce Resources
      • Starting File
      • Same Order
  • Backup options
  • Notable tar Usages
  • Looking Ahead: The Rest of this Manual
• Performing Backups and Restoring Files
  • Using tar to Perform Full Dumps
  • Using tar to Perform Incremental Dumps
  • The Incremental Options
  • Levels of Backups
  • Setting Parameters for Backups and Restoration
    • An Example Text of `Backup-specs'
    • Syntax for `Backup-specs'
  • Using the Backup Scripts
  • Using the Restore Script
• Choosing Files and Names for tar
  • Choosing and Naming Archive Files
  • Selecting Archive Members
  • Reading Names from a File
  • Excluding Some Files
    • Problems with Using the exclude Options
  • Wildcards Patterns and Matching
  • Operating Only on New Files
  • Descending into Directories
  • Crossing Filesystem Boundaries
    • Changing the Working Directory
    • Absolute File Names
• Date input formats
  • General date syntax
  • Calendar date item
  • Time of day item
  • Timezone item
  • Day of week item
  • Relative item in date strings
  • Pure numbers in date strings
  • Authors of getdate
• Controlling the Archive Format
  • Making tar Archives More Portable
    • Portable Names
    • Symbolic Links
    • Old V7 Archives
    • GNU tar and POSIX tar
    • Checksumming Problems
  • Using Less Space through Compression
    • Creating and Reading Compressed Archives
    • Archiving Sparse Files
  • Handling File Attributes
  • The Standard Format
  • GNU Extensions to the Archive Format
  • Comparison of tar and cpio
• Tapes and Other Archive Media
  • Device Selection and Switching
  • The Remote Tape Server
  • Some Common Problems and their Solutions
  • Blocking
    • Format Variations
    • The Blocking Factor of an Archive
  • Many Archives on One Tape
    • Tape Positions and Tape Marks
    • The mt Utility
  • Using Multiple Tapes
    • Archives Longer than One Tape or Disk
    • Tape Files
  • Including a Label in the Archive
  • Verifying Data as It is Stored
  • Write Protection
• Index

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