TAR(1) 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 subdirec-
tories (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 directory, the directory is extracted recursively.
Modes are restored if possible. If no file argument is
given, extract the entire archive. If the archive con-
tains 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).
EXAMPLES
Tar can be used to move hierarchies thus:
{cd fromdir; tar c .} | {cd todir; tar x}
SEE ALSO
ar(1), bundle(1)
BUGS
There is no way to ask for any but the last occurrence of a
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TAR(1) TAR(1)
file.
File path names are limited to 100 characters.
The tar format allows specification of links and symbolic
links, concepts foreign to Plan 9: they are ignored.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/22/24)