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TAR(1) GNU TAR Manual TAR(1)

NAME
tar - an archiving utility

SYNOPSIS
Traditional usage
tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]

UNIX-style usage
tar -A [OPTIONS] -f ARCHIVE ARCHIVE...

tar -c [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar -d [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar -r [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar -t [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

tar -u [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar -x [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

GNU-style usage
tar {--catenate|--concatenate} [OPTIONS] --file ARCHIVE ARCHIVE...

tar --create [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar {--diff|--compare} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar --delete [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

tar --append [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar --list [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

tar --test-label [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [LABEL...]

tar --update [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

tar {--extract|--get} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

NOTE
This manpage is a short description of GNU tar. For a detailed discussion, including examples and usage recommenda‐
tions, refer to the GNU Tar Manual available in texinfo format. If the info reader and the tar documentation are
properly installed on your system, the command

info tar

should give you access to the complete manual.

You can also view the manual using the info mode in emacs(1), or find it in various formats online at

https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

If any discrepancies occur between this manpage and the GNU Tar Manual, the later shall be considered the authorita‐
tive source.

DESCRIPTION
GNU tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files in a single file (an archive), and to manipulate
such archives. The archive can be either a regular file or a device (e.g. a tape drive, hence the name of the pro‐
gram, which stands for tape archiver), which can be located either on the local or on a remote machine.

Option styles
Options to GNU tar can be given in three different styles. In traditional style, the first argument is a cluster of
option letters and all subsequent arguments supply arguments to those options that require them. The arguments are
read in the same order as the option letters. Any command line words that remain after all options have been
processed are treated as non-option arguments: file or archive member names.

For example, the c option requires creating the archive, the v option requests the verbose operation, and the f op‐
tion takes an argument that sets the name of the archive to operate upon. The following command, written in the tra‐
ditional style, instructs tar to store all files from the directory /etc into the archive file etc.tar, verbosely
listing the files being archived:

tar cfv etc.tar /etc

In UNIX or short-option style, each option letter is prefixed with a single dash, as in other command line utilities.
If an option takes an argument, the argument follows it, either as a separate command line word, or immediately fol‐
lowing the option. However, if the option takes an optional argument, the argument must follow the option letter
without any intervening whitespace, as in -g/tmp/snar.db.

Any number of options not taking arguments can be clustered together after a single dash, e.g. -vkp. An option that
takes an argument (whether mandatory or optional) can appear at the end of such a cluster, e.g. -vkpf a.tar.

The example command above written in the short-option style could look like:

tar -cvf etc.tar /etc
or
tar -c -v -f etc.tar /etc

In GNU or long-option style, each option begins with two dashes and has a meaningful name, consisting of lower-case
letters and dashes. When used, the long option can be abbreviated to its initial letters, provided that this does
not create ambiguity. Arguments to long options are supplied either as a separate command line word, immediately
following the option, or separated from the option by an equals sign with no intervening whitespace. Optional argu‐
ments must always use the latter method.

Here are several ways of writing the example command in this style:

tar --create --file etc.tar --verbose /etc
or (abbreviating some options):
tar --cre --file=etc.tar --verb /etc

The options in all three styles can be intermixed, although doing so with old options is not encouraged.

Operation mode
The options listed in the table below tell GNU tar what operation it is to perform. Exactly one of them must be
given. The meaning of non-option arguments depends on the operation mode requested.

-A, --catenate, --concatenate
Append archives to the end of another archive. The arguments are treated as the names of archives to append.
All archives must be of the same format as the archive they are appended to, otherwise the resulting archive
might be unusable with non-GNU implementations of tar. Notice also that when more than one archive is given,
the members from archives other than the first one will be accessible in the resulting archive only when using
the -i (--ignore-zeros) option.

Compressed archives cannot be concatenated.

-c, --create
Create a new archive. Arguments supply the names of the files to be archived. Directories are archived re‐
cursively, unless the --no-recursion option is given.

-d, --diff, --compare
Find differences between archive and file system. The arguments are optional and specify archive members to
compare. If not given, the current working directory is assumed.

--delete
Delete from the archive. The arguments supply names of the archive members to be removed. At least one argu‐
ment must be given.

This option does not operate on compressed archives. There is no short option equivalent.

-r, --append
Append files to the end of an archive. Arguments have the same meaning as for -c (--create).

-t, --list
List the contents of an archive. Arguments are optional. When given, they specify the names of the members
to list.

--test-label
Test the archive volume label and exit. When used without arguments, it prints the volume label (if any) and
exits with status 0. When one or more command line arguments are given. tar compares the volume label with
each argument. It exits with code 0 if a match is found, and with code 1 otherwise. No output is displayed,
unless used together with the -v (--verbose) option.

There is no short option equivalent for this option.

-u, --update
Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the archive. Arguments have the same meaning as
with the -c and -r options. Notice, that newer files don't replace their old archive copies, but instead are
appended to the end of archive. The resulting archive can thus contain several members of the same name, cor‐
responding to various versions of the same file.

-x, --extract, --get
Extract files from an archive. Arguments are optional. When given, they specify names of the archive members
to be extracted.

--show-defaults
Show built-in defaults for various tar options and exit.

-?, --help
Display a short option summary and exit.

--usage
Display a list of available options and exit.

--version
Print program version and copyright information and exit.

OPTIONS
Operation modifiers
--check-device
Check device numbers when creating incremental archives (default).

-g, --listed-incremental=FILE
Handle new GNU-format incremental backups. FILE is the name of a snapshot file, where tar stores additional
information which is used to decide which files changed since the previous incremental dump and, consequently,
must be dumped again. If FILE does not exist when creating an archive, it will be created and all files will
be added to the resulting archive (the level 0 dump). To create incremental archives of non-zero level N, you
need a copy of the snapshot file created for level N-1, and use it as FILE.

When listing or extracting, the actual content of FILE is not inspected, it is needed only due to syntactical
requirements. It is therefore common practice to use /dev/null in its place.

--hole-detection=METHOD
Use METHOD to detect holes in sparse files. This option implies --sparse. Valid values for METHOD are seek
and raw. Default is seek with fallback to raw when not applicable.

-G, --incremental
Handle old GNU-format incremental backups.

--ignore-failed-read
Do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files.

--level=NUMBER
Set dump level for a created listed-incremental archive. Currently only --level=0 is meaningful: it instructs
tar to truncate the snapshot file before dumping, thereby forcing a level 0 dump.

-n, --seek
Assume the archive is seekable. Normally tar determines automatically whether the archive can be seeked or
not. This option is intended for use in cases when such recognition fails. It takes effect only if the
archive is open for reading (e.g. with --list or --extract options).

--no-check-device
Do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives.

--no-seek
Assume the archive is not seekable.

--occurrence[=N]
Process only the Nth occurrence of each file in the archive. This option is valid only when used with one of
the following subcommands: --delete, --diff, --extract or --list and when a list of files is given either on
the command line or via the -T option. The default N is 1.

--restrict
Disable the use of some potentially harmful options.

--sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
Set which version of the sparse format to use. This option implies --sparse. Valid argument values are 0.0,
0.1, and 1.0. For a detailed discussion of sparse formats, refer to the GNU Tar Manual, appendix D, "Sparse
Formats". Using the info reader, it can be accessed running the following command: info tar 'Sparse Formats'.

-S, --sparse
Handle sparse files efficiently. Some files in the file system may have segments which were actually never
written (quite often these are database files created by such systems as DBM). When given this option, tar
attempts to determine if the file is sparse prior to archiving it, and if so, to reduce the resulting archive
size by not dumping empty parts of the file.

Overwrite control
These options control tar actions when extracting a file over an existing copy on disk.

-k, --keep-old-files
Don't replace existing files when extracting.

--keep-newer-files
Don't replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies.

--keep-directory-symlink
Don't replace existing symlinks to directories when extracting.

--no-overwrite-dir
Preserve metadata of existing directories.

--one-top-level[=DIR]
Extract all files into DIR, or, if used without argument, into a subdirectory named by the base name of the
archive (minus standard compression suffixes recognizable by --auto-compress).

--overwrite
Overwrite existing files when extracting.

--overwrite-dir
Overwrite metadata of existing directories when extracting (default).

--recursive-unlink
Recursively remove all files in the directory prior to extracting it.

--remove-files
Remove files from disk after adding them to the archive.

--skip-old-files
Don't replace existing files when extracting, silently skip over them.

-U, --unlink-first
Remove each file prior to extracting over it.

-W, --verify
Verify the archive after writing it.

Output stream selection
--ignore-command-error
Ignore subprocess exit codes.

--no-ignore-command-error
Treat non-zero exit codes of children as error (default).

-O, --to-stdout
Extract files to standard output.

--to-command=COMMAND
Pipe extracted files to COMMAND. The argument is the pathname of an external program, optionally with command
line arguments. The program will be invoked and the contents of the file being extracted supplied to it on
its standard input. Additional data will be supplied via the following environment variables:

TAR_FILETYPE
Type of the file. It is a single letter with the following meaning:

f Regular file
d Directory
l Symbolic link
h Hard link
b Block device
c Character device

Currently only regular files are supported.

TAR_MODE
File mode, an octal number.

TAR_FILENAME
The name of the file.

TAR_REALNAME
Name of the file as stored in the archive.

TAR_UNAME
Name of the file owner.

TAR_GNAME
Name of the file owner group.

TAR_ATIME
Time of last access. It is a decimal number, representing seconds since the Epoch. If the archive pro‐
vides times with nanosecond precision, the nanoseconds are appended to the timestamp after a decimal
point.

TAR_MTIME
Time of last modification.

TAR_CTIME
Time of last status change.

TAR_SIZE
Size of the file.

TAR_UID
UID of the file owner.

TAR_GID
GID of the file owner.

Additionally, the following variables contain information about tar operation mode and the archive being
processed:

TAR_VERSION
GNU tar version number.

TAR_ARCHIVE
The name of the archive tar is processing.

TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

TAR_VOLUME
Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if reading a multi-volume archive).

TAR_FORMAT
Format of the archive being processed. One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7.

TAR_SUBCOMMAND
A short option (with a leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.

Handling of file attributes
--atime-preserve[=METHOD]
Preserve access times on dumped files, either by restoring the times after reading (METHOD=replace, this is
the default) or by not setting the times in the first place (METHOD=system).

--delay-directory-restore
Delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted directories until the end of extraction. Use
this option when extracting from an archive which has unusual member ordering.

--group=NAME[:GID]
Force NAME as group for added files. If GID is not supplied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric GID.
In this case the missing part (GID or name) will be inferred from the current host's group database.

When used with --group-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner group is not listed in FILE.

--group-map=FILE
Read group translation map from FILE. Empty lines are ignored. Comments are introduced with # sign and ex‐
tend to the end of line. Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a single group. It must consist
of two fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:

OLDGRP NEWGRP[:NEWGID]

OLDGRP is either a valid group name or a GID prefixed with +. Unless NEWGID is supplied, NEWGRP must also be
either a valid group name or a +GID. Otherwise, both NEWGRP and NEWGID need not be listed in the system group
database.

As a result, each input file with owner group OLDGRP will be stored in archive with owner group NEWGRP and GID
NEWGID.

--mode=CHANGES
Force symbolic mode CHANGES for added files.

--mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
Set mtime for added files. DATE-OR-FILE is either a date/time in almost arbitrary format, or the name of an
existing file. In the latter case the mtime of that file will be used.

-m, --touch
Don't extract file modified time.

--no-delay-directory-restore
Cancel the effect of the prior --delay-directory-restore option.

--no-same-owner
Extract files as yourself (default for ordinary users).

--no-same-permissions
Apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from the archive (default for ordinary users).

--numeric-owner
Always use numbers for user/group names.

--owner=NAME[:UID]
Force NAME as owner for added files. If UID is not supplied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric UID.
In this case the missing part (UID or name) will be inferred from the current host's user database.

When used with --owner-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner is not listed in FILE.

--owner-map=FILE
Read owner translation map from FILE. Empty lines are ignored. Comments are introduced with # sign and ex‐
tend to the end of line. Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a single UID. It must consist
of two fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:

OLDUSR NEWUSR[:NEWUID]

OLDUSR is either a valid user name or a UID prefixed with +. Unless NEWUID is supplied, NEWUSR must also be
either a valid user name or a +UID. Otherwise, both NEWUSR and NEWUID need not be listed in the system user
database.

As a result, each input file owned by OLDUSR will be stored in archive with owner name NEWUSR and UID NEWUID.

-p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions
Set permissions of extracted files to those recorded in the archive (default for superuser).

--same-owner
Try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser).

-s, --preserve-order, --same-order
Tell tar that the list of file names to process is sorted in the same order as the files in the archive.

--sort=ORDER
When creating an archive, sort directory entries according to ORDER, which is one of none, name, or inode.

The default is --sort=none, which stores archive members in the same order as returned by the operating sys‐
tem.

Using --sort=name ensures the member ordering in the created archive is uniform and reproducible.

Using --sort=inode reduces the number of disk seeks made when creating the archive and thus can considerably
speed up archivation. This sorting order is supported only if the underlying system provides the necessary
information.

Extended file attributes
--acls Enable POSIX ACLs support.

--no-acls
Disable POSIX ACLs support.

--selinux
Enable SELinux context support.

--no-selinux
Disable SELinux context support.

--xattrs
Enable extended attributes support.

--no-xattrs
Disable extended attributes support.

--xattrs-exclude=PATTERN
Specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys. PATTERN is a globbing pattern, e.g. --xattrs-exclude='user.*' to
include only attributes from the user namespace.

--xattrs-include=PATTERN
Specify the include pattern for xattr keys. PATTERN is a globbing pattern.

Device selection and switching
-f, --file=ARCHIVE
Use archive file or device ARCHIVE. If this option is not given, tar will first examine the environment vari‐
able `TAPE'. If it is set, its value will be used as the archive name. Otherwise, tar will assume the com‐
piled-in default. The default value can be inspected either using the --show-defaults option, or at the end
of the tar --help output.

An archive name that has a colon in it specifies a file or device on a remote machine. The part before the
colon is taken as the machine name or IP address, and the part after it as the file or device pathname, e.g.:

--file=remotehost:/dev/sr0

An optional username can be prefixed to the hostname, placing a @ sign between them.

By default, the remote host is accessed via the rsh(1) command. Nowadays it is common to use ssh(1) instead.
You can do so by giving the following command line option:

--rsh-command=/usr/bin/ssh

The remote machine should have the rmt(8) command installed. If its pathname does not match tar's default,
you can inform tar about the correct pathname using the --rmt-command option.

--force-local
Archive file is local even if it has a colon.

-F, --info-script=COMMAND, --new-volume-script=COMMAND
Run COMMAND at the end of each tape (implies -M). The command can include arguments. When started, it will
inherit tar's environment plus the following variables:

TAR_VERSION
GNU tar version number.

TAR_ARCHIVE
The name of the archive tar is processing.

TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

TAR_VOLUME
Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if reading a multi-volume archive).

TAR_FORMAT
Format of the archive being processed. One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7.

TAR_SUBCOMMAND
A short option (with a leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.

TAR_FD File descriptor which can be used to communicate the new volume name to tar.

If the info script fails, tar exits; otherwise, it begins writing the next volume.

-L, --tape-length=N
Change tape after writing Nx1024 bytes. If N is followed by a size suffix (see the subsection Size suffixes
below), the suffix specifies the multiplicative factor to be used instead of 1024.

This option implies -M.

-M, --multi-volume
Create/list/extract multi-volume archive.

--rmt-command=COMMAND
Use COMMAND instead of rmt when accessing remote archives. See the description of the -f option, above.

--rsh-command=COMMAND
Use COMMAND instead of rsh when accessing remote archives. See the description of the -f option, above.

--volno-file=FILE
When this option is used in conjunction with --multi-volume, tar will keep track of which volume of a multi-
volume archive it is working in FILE.

Device blocking
-b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS
Set record size to BLOCKSx512 bytes.

-B, --read-full-records
When listing or extracting, accept incomplete input records after end-of-file marker.

-i, --ignore-zeros
Ignore zeroed blocks in archive. Normally two consecutive 512-blocks filled with zeroes mean EOF and tar
stops reading after encountering them. This option instructs it to read further and is useful when reading
archives created with the -A option.

--record-size=NUMBER
Set record size. NUMBER is the number of bytes per record. It must be multiple of 512. It can can be suf‐
fixed with a size suffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10 Kilobytes. See the subsection Size suffixes, for a
list of valid suffixes.

Archive format selection
-H, --format=FORMAT
Create archive of the given format. Valid formats are:

gnu GNU tar 1.13.x format

oldgnu GNU format as per tar <= 1.12.

pax, posix
POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format.

ustar POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format.

v7 Old V7 tar format.

--old-archive, --portability
Same as --format=v7.

--pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
Control pax keywords when creating PAX archives (-H pax). This option is equivalent to the -o option of the
pax(1) utility.

--posix
Same as --format=posix.

-V, --label=TEXT
Create archive with volume name TEXT. If listing or extracting, use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume
name.

Compression options
-a, --auto-compress
Use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

-I, --use-compress-program=COMMAND
Filter data through COMMAND. It must accept the -d option, for decompression. The argument can contain com‐
mand line options.

-j, --bzip2
Filter the archive through bzip2(1).

-J, --xz
Filter the archive through xz(1).

--lzip Filter the archive through lzip(1).

--lzma Filter the archive through lzma(1).

--lzop Filter the archive through lzop(1).

--no-auto-compress
Do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

-z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
Filter the archive through gzip(1).

-Z, --compress, --uncompress
Filter the archive through compress(1).

--zstd Filter the archive through zstd(1).

Local file selection
--add-file=FILE
Add FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash).

--backup[=CONTROL]
Backup before removal. The CONTROL argument, if supplied, controls the backup policy. Its valid values are:

none, off
Never make backups.

t, numbered
Make numbered backups.

nil, existing
Make numbered backups if numbered backups exist, simple backups otherwise.

never, simple
Always make simple backups

If CONTROL is not given, the value is taken from the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. If it is not set,
existing is assumed.

-C, --directory=DIR
Change to DIR before performing any operations. This option is order-sensitive, i.e. it affects all options
that follow.

--exclude=PATTERN
Exclude files matching PATTERN, a glob(3)-style wildcard pattern.

--exclude-backups
Exclude backup and lock files.

--exclude-caches
Exclude contents of directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG, except for the tag file itself.

--exclude-caches-all
Exclude directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG and the file itself.

--exclude-caches-under
Exclude everything under directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG

--exclude-ignore=FILE
Before dumping a directory, see if it contains FILE. If so, read exclusion patterns from this file. The pat‐
terns affect only the directory itself.

--exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE
Same as --exclude-ignore, except that patterns from FILE affect both the directory and all its subdirectories.

--exclude-tag=FILE
Exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except for FILE itself.

--exclude-tag-all=FILE
Exclude directories containing FILE.

--exclude-tag-under=FILE
Exclude everything under directories containing FILE.

--exclude-vcs
Exclude version control system directories.

--exclude-vcs-ignores
Exclude files that match patterns read from VCS-specific ignore files. Supported files are: .cvsignore, .git‐
ignore, .bzrignore, and .hgignore.

-h, --dereference
Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to.

--hard-dereference
Follow hard links; archive and dump the files they refer to.

-K, --starting-file=MEMBER
Begin at the given member in the archive.

--newer-mtime=DATE
Work on files whose data changed after the DATE. If DATE starts with / or . it is taken to be a file name;
the mtime of that file is used as the date.

--no-null
Disable the effect of the previous --null option.

--no-recursion
Avoid descending automatically in directories.

--no-unquote
Do not unquote input file or member names.

--no-verbatim-files-from
Treat each line read from a file list as if it were supplied in the command line. I.e., leading and trailing
whitespace is removed and, if the resulting string begins with a dash, it is treated as tar command line op‐
tion.

This is the default behavior. The --no-verbatim-files-from option is provided as a way to restore it after
--verbatim-files-from option.

This option is positional: it affects all --files-from options that occur after it in, until --verba‐
tim-files-from option or end of line, whichever occurs first.

It is implied by the --no-null option.

--null Instruct subsequent -T options to read null-terminated names verbatim (disables special handling of names that
start with a dash).

Manual: tar

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