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GNU tar

GNU tar

1. Introduction
2. Tutorial Introduction to tar
3. Invoking GNU tar
4. GNU tar Operations
5. Performing Backups and Restoring Files
6. Choosing Files and Names for tar
7. Date input formats
8. Controlling the Archive Format
9. Tapes and Other Archive Media
Index

 -- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Introduction

What this Book Contains
1.1 Some Definitions
1.2 What tar Does
1.3 How tar Archives are Named
1.4 POSIX Compliance
1.5 GNU tar Authors
1.6 Reporting bugs or suggestions

Tutorial Introduction to tar

Assumptions this Tutorial Makes
Stylistic Conventions
2.1 Basic tar Operations and Options
2.2 The Three Most Frequently Used Operations
2.3 Two Frequently Used Options
2.4 How to Create Archives
2.5 How to List Archives
2.6 How to Extract Members from an Archive
2.7 Going Further Ahead in this Manual

Two Frequently Used Options

The `--file' Option
The `--verbose' Option
Getting Help: Using the --help Option

How to Create Archives

2.4.1 Preparing a Practice Directory for Examples
2.4.2 Creating the Archive
2.4.3 Running `--create' with `--verbose'
2.4.4 Short Forms with `create'
2.4.5 Archiving Directories

How to List Archives

Listing the Contents of a Stored Directory

How to Extract Members from an Archive

2.6.1 Extracting an Entire Archive
2.6.2 Extracting Specific Files
2.6.3 Extracting Files that are Directories
2.6.4 Commands That Will Fail

Invoking GNU tar

3.1 General Synopsis of tar
3.2 Using tar Options
3.3 The Three Option Styles
3.4 All tar Options
3.5 GNU tar documentation
3.6 Checking tar progress
3.7 Asking for Confirmation During Operations

The Three Option Styles

3.3.1 Mnemonic Option Style
3.3.2 Short Option Style
3.3.3 Old Option Style
3.3.4 Mixing Option Styles

All tar Options

3.4.1 Operations
3.4.2 tar Options
3.4.3 Short Options Cross Reference

GNU tar Operations

4.1 Basic GNU tar Operations
4.2 Advanced GNU tar Operations
4.3 Options Used by --extract
4.4 Backup options
4.5 Notable tar Usages
4.6 Looking Ahead: The Rest of this Manual

Advanced GNU tar Operations

4.2.1 The Five Advanced tar Operations
4.2.2 The Current State of the Practice Files
4.2.3 How to Add Files to Existing Archives: --append
4.2.4 Updating an Archive
4.2.5 Combining Archives with --concatenate
4.2.6 Removing Archive Members Using `--delete'
4.2.7 Comparing Archive Members with the File System

How to Add Files to Existing Archives: --append

4.2.3.1 Appending Files to an Archive
4.2.3.2 Multiple Files with the Same Name

Updating an Archive

4.2.4.1 How to Update an Archive Using --update

Options Used by --extract

4.3.1 Options to Help Read Archives
4.3.2 Changing How tar Writes Files
4.3.3 Coping with Scarce Resources

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

Options to Prevent Overwriting Files

Keep Old Files
Unlink First
Recursive Unlink

Coping with Scarce Resources

Starting File
Same Order

Performing Backups and Restoring Files

5.1 Using tar to Perform Full Dumps
5.2 Using tar to Perform Incremental Dumps
5.3 The Incremental Options
5.4 Levels of Backups
5.5 Setting Parameters for Backups and Restoration
5.6 Using the Backup Scripts
5.7 Using the Restore Script

Setting Parameters for Backups and Restoration

5.5.1 An Example Text of `Backup-specs'
5.5.2 Syntax for `Backup-specs'

Choosing Files and Names for tar

6.1 Choosing and Naming Archive Files		Choosing the Archive's Name
6.2 Selecting Archive Members
6.3 Reading Names from a File
6.4 Excluding Some Files
6.5 Wildcards Patterns and Matching
6.6 Operating Only on New Files
6.7 Descending into Directories
6.8 Crossing Filesystem Boundaries

Reading Names from a File

NUL Terminated File Names

Excluding Some Files

Problems with Using the exclude Options

Crossing Filesystem Boundaries

6.8.1 Changing the Working Directory		Changing Directory
6.8.2 Absolute File Names

Date input formats

7.1 General date syntax		Common rules.
7.2 Calendar date item		19 Dec 1994.
7.3 Time of day item		9:20pm.
7.4 Timezone item		EST, DST, BST, UCT, AHST, ...
7.5 Day of week item		Monday and others.
7.6 Relative item in date strings		next tuesday, 2 years ago.
7.7 Pure numbers in date strings		19931219, 1440.
7.8 Authors of getdate		Bellovin, Salz, Berets, et al.

Controlling the Archive Format

8.1 Making tar Archives More Portable
8.2 Using Less Space through Compression
8.3 Handling File Attributes
8.4 The Standard Format
8.5 GNU Extensions to the Archive Format
8.6 Comparison of tar and cpio

Making tar Archives More Portable

8.1.1 Portable Names
8.1.2 Symbolic Links
8.1.3 Old V7 Archives
8.1.4 GNU tar and POSIX tar		POSIX archives
8.1.5 Checksumming Problems

Using Less Space through Compression

8.2.1 Creating and Reading Compressed Archives
8.2.2 Archiving Sparse Files

Tapes and Other Archive Media

9.1 Device Selection and Switching		Device selection and switching
9.2 The Remote Tape Server
9.3 Some Common Problems and their Solutions
9.4 Blocking
9.5 Many Archives on One Tape		Many archives on one tape
9.6 Using Multiple Tapes
9.7 Including a Label in the Archive
9.8 Verifying Data as It is Stored
9.9 Write Protection

Blocking

9.4.1 Format Variations
9.4.2 The Blocking Factor of an Archive

Many Archives on One Tape

9.5.1 Tape Positions and Tape Marks
9.5.2 The mt Utility

Using Multiple Tapes

9.6.1 Archives Longer than One Tape or Disk
9.6.2 Tape Files