Performs a chdir (see cd(1)) operation on directory and performs the c (create) or r (replace) operation on file. Use short relative path names for file. If file is ".", archive all files in directory. This operand enables archiving files from multiple directories not related by a close common parent. This option may also be passed once to x (extract). In this case the program will chdir to directory after opening the archive, but before extracting its contents.

Opens include-file containing a list of files, one per line, and treats it as if each file appeared separately on the command line. Be careful of trailing white spaces. Also beware of leading white spaces, since, for each line in the included file, the entire line (apart from the newline) is used to match against the initial string of files to include. In the case where excluded files (see X function modifier) are also specified, they take precedence over all included files. If a file is specified in both the exclude-file and the include-file (or on the command line), it is excluded.

A path name of a regular file or directory to be archived (when the c, r or u functions are specified), extracted (x) or listed (t). When file is the path name of a directory, the action applies to all of the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that directory. When a file is archived, and the E flag (see Function Modifiers) is not specified, the filename cannot exceed 256 characters. In addition, it must be possible to split the name between parent directory names so that the prefix is no longer than 155 characters and the name is no longer than 100 characters. If E is specified, a name of up to PATH_MAX characters can be specified. For example, a file whose basename is longer than 100 characters could not be archived without using the E flag. A file whose directory portion is 200 characters and whose basename is 50 characters could be archived (without using E) if a slash appears in the directory name somewhere in character positions 151-156.

Create. Writing begins at the beginning of the tarfile, instead of at the end.

Replace. The named files are written at the end of the tarfile. A file created with extended headers must be updated with extended headers (see E flag under Function Modifiers). A file created without extended headers cannot be modified with extended headers.

Table of Contents. The names of the specified files are listed each time they occur in the tarfile. If no file argument is specified, the names of all files and any associated extended attributes in the tarfile are listed. With the v function modifier, additional information for the specified files is displayed.

Update. The named files are written at the end of the tarfile if they are not already in the tarfile, or if they have been modified since last written to that tarfile. An update can be rather slow. A tarfile created on a 5.x system cannot be updated on a 4.x system. A file created with extended headers must be updated with extended headers (see E flag under Function Modifiers). A file created without extended headers cannot be modified with extended headers.

Extract or restore. The named files are extracted from the tarfile and written to the directory specified in the tarfile, relative to the current directory. Use the relative path names of files and directories to be extracted. Absolute path names contained in the tar archive are unpacked using the absolute path names, that is, the leading forward slash (/) is not stripped off. If a named file matches a directory whose contents has been written to the tarfile, this directory is recursively extracted. The owner, modification time, and mode are restored (if possible); otherwise, to restore owner, you must be the super-user. Character-special and block-special devices (created by mknod(1M)) can only be extracted by the super-user. If no file argument is specified, the entire content of the tarfile is extracted. If the tarfile contains several files with the same name, each file is written to the appropriate directory, overwriting the previous one. Filename substitution wildcards cannot be used for extracting files from the archive. Rather, use a command of the form:

tar xvf ... /dev/rmt/0 \(gatar tf ... /dev/rmt/0 | \e
 grep 'pattern' \(ga

During a create operation autodetect compression based on the archive suffix.

Blocking Factor. Use when reading or writing to raw magnetic archives (see f below). The blocksize argument specifies the number of 512-byte tape blocks to be included in each read or write operation performed on the tarfile. The minimum is 1, the default is 20. The maximum value is a function of the amount of memory available and the blocking requirements of the specific tape device involved (see mtio(7I) for details.) The maximum cannot exceed INT_MAX/512 (4194303). When a tape archive is being read, its actual blocking factor is automatically detected, provided that it is less than or equal to the nominal blocking factor (the value of the blocksize argument, or the default value if the b modifier is not specified). If the actual blocking factor is greater than the nominal blocking factor, a read error results. See Example 5 in EXAMPLES.

Block. Force tar to perform multiple reads (if necessary) to read exactly enough bytes to fill a block. This function modifier enables tar to work across the Ethernet, since pipes and sockets return partial blocks even when more data is coming. When reading from standard input, "-", this function modifier is selected by default to ensure that tar can recover from short reads.

Data change warnings. Used with c, r, or u function letters. Ignored with t or x function letters. If the size of a file changes while the file is being archived, treat this condition as a warning instead of as an error. A warning message is still written, but the exit status is not affected.

Error. Exit immediately with a positive exit status if any unexpected errors occur.

Write a tarfile with extended headers. (Used with c, r, or u function letters. Ignored with t or x function letters.) When a tarfile is written with extended headers, the modification time is maintained with a granularity of microseconds rather than seconds. In addition, filenames no longer than PATH_MAX characters that could not be archived without E, and file sizes greater than 8GB, are supported. The E flag is required whenever the larger files and/or files with longer names, or whose UID/GID exceed 2097151, are to be archived, or if time granularity of microseconds is desired.

File. Use the tarfile argument as the name of the tarfile. If f is specified, /etc/default/tar is not searched. If f is omitted, tar uses the device indicated by the TAPE environment variable, if set. Otherwise, tar uses the default values defined in /etc/default/tar. The number matching the archiveN string is used as the output device with the blocking and size specifications from the file. For example,

tar -c 2/tmp/*

example% cd fromdir; tar cf - .| (cd todir; tar xfBp -)

With one F argument, tar excludes all directories named SCCS and RCS from the tarfile. With two arguments, FF, tar excludes all directories named SCCS and RCS, all files with .o as their suffix, and all files named errs, core, and a.out.

Follow symbolic links as if they were normal files or directories. Normally, tar does not follow symbolic links.

Ignore directory checksum errors.

Use bzip2 for compressing or decompressing the archives.

Use xz for compressing or decompressing the archives.

Link. Output error message if unable to resolve all links to the files being archived. If l is not specified, no error messages are printed.

Modify. The modification time of the file is the time of extraction. This function modifier is valid only with the x function.

The file being read is a non-tape device. Reading of the archive is faster since tar can randomly seek around the archive.

Ownership. Assign to extracted files the user and group identifiers of the user running the program, rather than those on tarfile. This is the default behavior for users other than root. If the o function modifier is not set and the user is root, the extracted files takes on the group and user identifiers of the files on tarfile (see chown(1) for more information). The o function modifier is only valid with the x function.

Restore the named files to their original modes, and ACLs if applicable, ignoring the present umask(1). This is the default behavior if invoked as super-user with the x function letter specified. If super-user, SETUID, and sticky information are also extracted, and files are restored with their original owners and permissions, rather than owned by root. When this function modifier is used with the c function, ACLs are created in the tarfile along with other information. Errors occur when a tarfile with ACLs is extracted by previous versions of tar.

Suppress the addition of a trailing "/" on directory entries in the archive.

This modifier is only available if the system is configured with Trusted Extensions. When this modifier is used with the function letter c, r, or u for creating, replacing or updating a tarfile, the sensitivity label associated with each archived file and directory is stored in the tarfile. Specifying T implies the function modifier p. When used with the function letter x for extracting a tarfile, the tar program verifies that the file's sensitivity label specified in the archive equals the sensitivity label of the destination directory. If not, the file is not restored. This operation must be invoked from the global zone. If the archived file has a relative pathname, it is restored to the corresponding directory with the same label, if available. This is done by prepending to the current destination directory the root pathname of the zone whose label equals the file. If no such zone exists, the file is not restored. Limited support is provided for extracting labeled archives from Trusted Solaris 8. Only sensitivity labels, and multi-level directory specifications are interpreted. Privilege specifications and audit attribute flags are silently ignored. Multilevel directory specifications including symbolic links to single level directories are are mapped into zone-relative pathnames if a zone with the same label is available. This support is intended to facilitate migration of home directories. Architectural differences preclude the extraction of arbitrarily labeled files from Trusted Solaris 8 into identical pathnames in Trusted Extensions. Files cannot be extracted unless their archived label matches the destination label.

Verbose. Output the name of each file preceded by the function letter. With the t function, v provides additional information about the tarfile entries. The listing is similar to the format produced by the -l option of the ls(1) command.

What. Output the action to be taken and the name of the file, then await the user's confirmation. If the response is affirmative, the action is performed; otherwise, the action is not performed. This function modifier cannot be used with the t function.

Exclude. Use the exclude-file argument as a file containing a list of relative path names for files (or directories) to be excluded from the tarfile when using the functions c, x, or t. Be careful of trailing white spaces. Also beware of leading white spaces, since, for each line in the excluded file, the entire line (apart from the newline) is used to match against the initial string of files to exclude. Lines in the exclude file are matched exactly, so an entry like "/var" does not exclude the /var directory if tar is backing up relative pathnames. The entry should read "./var" under these circumstances. The tar command does not expand shell metacharacters in the exclude file, so specifying entries like "*.o" does not have the effect of excluding all files with names suffixed with ".o". If a complex list of files is to be excluded, the exclude file should be generated by some means such as the find(1) command with appropriate conditions. Multiple X arguments can be used, with one exclude-file per argument. In the case where included files (see -I include-file operand) are also specified, the excluded files take precedence over all included files. If a file is specified in both the exclude-file and the include-file (or on the command line), it is excluded.

Use gzip for compressing or decompressing the archives.

Use compress for compressing or decompressing the archives.

Include extended attributes in archive. By default, tar does not place extended attributes in the archive. With this flag, tar looks for extended attributes on the files to be placed in the archive and add them to the archive. Extended attributes go in the archive as special files with a special type label. When this modifier is used with the x function, extended attributes are extracted from the tape along with the normal file data. Extended attribute files can only be extracted from an archive as part of a normal file extract. Attempts to explicitly extract attribute records are ignored.

Include extended system attributes in archive. By default, tar does not place extended system attributes in the archive. With this flag, tar looks for extended system attributes on the files to be placed in the archive and adds them to the archive. Extended system attributes go in the archive as special files with a special type label. When this modifier is used with the x function, extended system attributes are extracted from the tape along with the normal file data. Extended system attribute files can only be extracted from an archive as part of a normal file extract. Attempts to explicitly extract attribute records are ignored.

Select an alternative drive on which the tape is mounted. The default entries are specified in /etc/default/tar. If no digit or f function modifier is specified, the entry in /etc/default/tar with digit "0" is the default.

column 1 is the access permissions to ./test.c

column 2 is the user-id/group-id of ./test.c

column 3 is the size of ./test.c in bytes

column 4 is the modification date of ./test.c. When the LC_TIME category is not set to the POSIX locale, a different format and date order field can be used.

column 5 is the name of ./test.c

Successful completion.

An error occurred.

Settings might look like this:

archive0=/dev/rmt/0

archive1=/dev/rmt/0n

archive2=/dev/rmt/1

archive3=/dev/rmt/1n

archive4=/dev/rmt/0

archive5=/dev/rmt/0n

archive6=/dev/rmt/1

archive7=/dev/rmt/1n

1. Specify them using file operands containing a / character on the command line (such as /home/joe/-C or ./-I).

2. Include them in an include file with -I include-file.

3. Specify the directory in which the file resides:

-C directory -C

-C directory -I

4. Specify the entire directory in which the file resides:

-C directory .