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GNU tar

The `--file' Option

--file=archive-name

-f archive-name

Specify the name of an archive file.

You can specify an argument for the --file=archive-name (-f archive-name) option whenever you use tar; this option determines the name of the archive file that tar will work on.

If you don't specify this argument, then tar will use a default, usually some physical tape drive attached to your machine. If there is no tape drive attached, or the default is not meaningful, then tar will print an error message. The error message might look roughly like one of the following:

tar: can't open /dev/rmt8 : No such device or address tar: can't open /dev/rsmt0 : I/O error

To avoid confusion, we recommend that you always specfiy an archive file name by using --file=archive-name (-f archive-name) when writing your tar commands. For more information on using the --file=archive-name (-f archive-name) option, see 6.1 Choosing and Naming Archive Files.