term% cat index.txt TAR(1) General Commands Manual TAR(1)
NAME
tar - archiver
SYNOPSIS
tar key [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Tar saves and restores file trees. It is most often used to transport
a tree of files from one system to another. The key is a string that
contains at most one function letter plus optional modifiers. Other
arguments to the command are names of files or directories to be dumped
or restored. A directory name implies all the contained files and sub‐
directories (recursively).
The function is one of the following letters:
c Create a new archive with the given files as contents.
x Extract the named files from the archive. If a file is a direc‐
tory, the directory is extracted recursively. Modes are re‐
stored if possible. If no file argument is given, extract the
entire archive. If the archive contains multiple entries for a
file, the latest one wins.
t List all occurrences of each file in the archive, or of all
files if there are no file arguments.
r The named files are appended to the archive.
The modifiers are:
v (verbose) Print the name of each file treated preceded by the
function letter. With t, give more details about the archive
entries.
f Use the next argument as the name of the archive instead of the
default standard input (for keys x and t) or standard output
(for keys c and r).
u Use the next (numeric) argument as the user id for files in the
output archive. This is only useful when moving files to a non-
Plan 9 system.
g Use the next (numeric) argument as the group id for files in the
output archive.
EXAMPLES
Tar can be used to copy hierarchies thus:
{cd fromdir; tar c .} | {cd todir; tar x}
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/tar.c
SEE ALSO
ar(1), bundle(1), tapefs(1)
BUGS
There is no way to ask for any but the last occurrence of a file.
File path names are limited to 100 characters.
The tar format allows specification of links and symbolic links, con‐
cepts foreign to Plan 9: they are ignored.
TAR(1)