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063-the-tar-command.md

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The tar command

The tar command stands for tape archive, is used to create Archive and extract the Archive files. This command provides archiving functionality in Linux. We can use tar command to create compressed or uncompressed Archive files and also maintain and modify them.

Examples:

  1. To create a tar file in abel directory:
tar -cvf file-14-09-12.tar /home/abel/
  1. To un-tar a file in the current directory:
 tar -xvf file-14-09-12.tar

Syntax:

tar [options] [archive-file] [file or directory to be archived

Additional Flags and their Functionalities:

Use Flag Description
-c Creates Archive
-x Extract the archive
-f Creates archive with given filename
-t Displays or lists files in archived file
-u Archives and adds to an existing archive file
-v Displays Verbose Information
-A Concatenates the archive files
-z zip, tells tar command that creates tar file using gzip
-j Filter archive tar file using tbzip
w Verify a archive file
r update or add file or directory in already existed .tar file
-? Displays a short summary of the project
-d Find the difference between an archive and file system
--usage shows available tar options
--version Displays the installed tar version
--show-defaults Shows default enabled options
Option Flag Description
--check-device Check device numbers during incremental archive
-g Used to allow compatibility with GNU-format incremental ackups
--hole-detection Used to detect holes in the sparse files
-G Used to allow compatibility with old GNU-format incremental backups
--ignore-failed-read Don't exit the program on file read errors
--level Set the dump level for created archives
-n Assume the archive is seekable
--no-check-device Do not check device numbers when creating archives
--no-seek Assume the archive is not seekable
--occurrence=N `Process only the Nth occurrence of each file
--restrict `Disable use of potentially harmful options
--sparse-version=MAJOR,MINOR Set version of the sparce format to use
-S Handle sparse files efficiently.
Overwright control Flag Description
-k Don't replace existing files
--keep-newer-files Don't replace existing files that are newer than the archives version
--keep-directory-symlink Don't replace existing symlinks
--no-overwrite-dir Preserve metadata of existing directories
--one-top-level=DIR Extract all files into a DIR
--overwrite Overwrite existing files
--overwrite-dir Overwrite metadata of directories
--recursive-unlink Recursivly remove all files in the directory before extracting
--remove-files Remove files after adding them to a directory
--skip-old-files Don't replace existing files when extracting
-u Remove each file before extracting over it
-w Verify the archive after writing it