793a2b6ef1
rather than 'XXXX'. MFC after: 1 week
755 lines
21 KiB
Groff
755 lines
21 KiB
Groff
.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Tim Kientzle
|
|
.\" All rights reserved.
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
|
|
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
|
|
.\" are met:
|
|
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
|
|
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
|
|
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
|
|
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
|
|
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
|
|
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
|
|
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
|
|
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
|
|
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
|
|
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
|
|
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
|
|
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
|
|
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
|
|
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
|
|
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" $FreeBSD$
|
|
.\"
|
|
.Dd April 13, 2004
|
|
.Dt BSDTAR 1
|
|
.Os
|
|
.Sh NAME
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
.Nd manipulate tape archives
|
|
.Sh SYNOPSIS
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Op Ar bundled-flags Ao args Ac
|
|
.Op Ao Ar file Ac | Ao Ar pattern Ac ...
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Brq Fl c
|
|
.Op Ar options
|
|
.Op Ar files | directories
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Brq Fl r | Fl u
|
|
.Fl f Ar archive-file
|
|
.Op Ar options
|
|
.Op Ar files | directories
|
|
.Nm
|
|
.Brq Fl t | Fl x
|
|
.Op Ar options
|
|
.Op Ar patterns
|
|
.Sh DESCRIPTION
|
|
.Nm
|
|
creates and manipulates streaming archive files.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The first synopsis form shows a
|
|
.Dq bundled
|
|
option word.
|
|
This usage is provided for compatibility with historical implementations.
|
|
See COMPATIBILITY below for details.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The other synopsis forms show the preferred usage.
|
|
The first option to
|
|
.Nm
|
|
is a mode indicator from the following list:
|
|
.Bl -tag -compact -width indent
|
|
.It Fl c
|
|
Create a new archive containing the specified items.
|
|
.It Fl r
|
|
Like
|
|
.Fl c ,
|
|
but new entries are appended to the archive.
|
|
Note that this only works on uncompressed archives stored in regular files.
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl f
|
|
option is required.
|
|
.It Fl t
|
|
List archive contents to stdout.
|
|
.It Fl u
|
|
Like
|
|
.Fl r ,
|
|
but new entries are added only if they have a modification date
|
|
newer than the corresponding entry in the archive.
|
|
Note that this only works on uncompressed archives stored in regular files.
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl f
|
|
option is required.
|
|
.It Fl x
|
|
Extract to disk from the archive.
|
|
If a file with the same name appears more than once in the archive,
|
|
each copy will be extracted, with later copies overwriting (replacing)
|
|
earlier copies.
|
|
.El
|
|
.Pp
|
|
In
|
|
.Fl c ,
|
|
.Fl r ,
|
|
or
|
|
.Fl u
|
|
mode, each specified file or directory is added to the
|
|
archive in the order specified on the command line.
|
|
By default, the contents of each directory are also archived.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
In extract or list mode, the entire command line
|
|
is read and parsed before the archive is opened.
|
|
The pathnames or patterns on the command line indicate
|
|
which items in the archive should be processed.
|
|
Patterns are shell-style globbing patterns as
|
|
documented in
|
|
.Xr tcsh 1 .
|
|
.Sh OPTIONS
|
|
Unless specifically stated otherwise, options are applicable in
|
|
all operating modes.
|
|
.Bl -tag -width indent
|
|
.It Cm @ Ns Pa archive
|
|
(c and r mode only)
|
|
The specified archive is opened and the entries
|
|
in it will be appended to the current archive.
|
|
As a simple example,
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl c Fl f Pa - Pa newfile Cm @ Ns Pa original.tar
|
|
writes a new archive to standard output containing a file
|
|
.Pa newfile
|
|
and all of the entries from
|
|
.Pa original.tar .
|
|
In contrast,
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl c Fl f Pa - Pa newfile Pa original.tar
|
|
creates a new archive with only two entries.
|
|
Similarly,
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl czf Pa - Fl -format Cm pax Cm @ Ns Pa -
|
|
reads an archive from standard input (whose format will be determined
|
|
automatically) and converts it into a gzip-compressed
|
|
pax-format archive on stdout.
|
|
In this way,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
can be used to convert archives from one format to another.
|
|
.It Fl b Ar blocksize
|
|
Specify the block size, in 512-byte records, for tape drive I/O.
|
|
As a rule, this argument is only needed when reading from or writing
|
|
to tape drives, and usually not even then as the default block size of
|
|
20 records (10240 bytes) is very common.
|
|
.It Fl C Ar directory
|
|
In c and r mode, this changes the directory before adding
|
|
the following files.
|
|
In x mode, change directories after opening the archive
|
|
but before extracting entries from the archive.
|
|
.It Fl -check-links ( Fl W Cm check-links )
|
|
(c and r modes only)
|
|
Issue a warning message unless all links to each file are archived.
|
|
.It Fl -exclude Ar pattern ( Fl W Cm exclude Ns = Ns Ar pattern )
|
|
Do not process files or directories that match the
|
|
specified pattern.
|
|
Note that exclusions take precedence over patterns or filenames
|
|
specified on the command line.
|
|
.It Fl -format Ar format ( Fl W Cm format Ns = Ns Ar format )
|
|
(c mode only)
|
|
Use the specified format for the created archive.
|
|
Supported formats include
|
|
.Dq cpio ,
|
|
.Dq pax ,
|
|
.Dq shar ,
|
|
and
|
|
.Dq ustar .
|
|
Other formats may also be supported; see
|
|
.Xr libarchive-formats 5
|
|
for more information about currently-supported formats.
|
|
.It Fl f Ar file
|
|
Read the archive from or write the archive to the specified file.
|
|
The filename can be
|
|
.Pa -
|
|
for standard input or standard output.
|
|
If not specified, the default tape device will be used.
|
|
(On FreeBSD, the default tape device is
|
|
.Pa /dev/sa0 . )
|
|
.It Fl -fast-read ( Fl W Cm fast-read )
|
|
(x and t mode only)
|
|
Extract or list only the first archive entry that matches each pattern
|
|
or filename operand.
|
|
Exit as soon as each specified pattern or filename has been matched.
|
|
By default, the archive is always read to the very end, since
|
|
there can be multiple entries with the same name and, by convention,
|
|
later entries overwrite earlier entries.
|
|
This option is provided as a performance optimization.
|
|
.It Fl H
|
|
(c and r mode only)
|
|
Symbolic links named on the command line will be followed; the
|
|
target of the link will be archived, not the link itself.
|
|
.It Fl h
|
|
(c and r mode only)
|
|
Synonym for
|
|
.Fl L .
|
|
.It Fl I
|
|
Synonym for
|
|
.Fl T .
|
|
.It Fl -include Ar pattern ( Fl W Cm include Ns = Ns Ar pattern )
|
|
Process only files or directories that match the specified pattern.
|
|
Note that exclusions specified with
|
|
.Fl -exclude
|
|
take precedence over inclusions.
|
|
If no inclusions are explicitly specified, all entries are processed by
|
|
default.
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl -include
|
|
option is especially useful when filtering archives.
|
|
For example, the command
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl c Fl f Pa new.tar Fl -include='*foo*' Cm @ Ns Pa old.tgz
|
|
creates a new archive
|
|
.Pa new.tar
|
|
containing only the entries from
|
|
.Pa old.tgz
|
|
containing the string
|
|
.Sq foo .
|
|
.It Fl j
|
|
(c mode only)
|
|
Compress the resulting archive with
|
|
.Xr bzip2 1 .
|
|
In extract or list modes, this option is ignored.
|
|
Note that, unlike other
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
implementations, this implementation recognizes bzip2 compression
|
|
automatically when reading archives.
|
|
.It Fl k
|
|
(x mode only)
|
|
Do not overwrite existing files.
|
|
In particular, if a file appears more than once in an archive,
|
|
later copies will not overwrite earlier copies.
|
|
.It Fl L
|
|
(c and r mode only)
|
|
All symbolic links will be followed.
|
|
Normally, symbolic links are archived as such.
|
|
With this option, the target of the link will be archived instead.
|
|
.It Fl l
|
|
If
|
|
.Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
|
|
is specified in the environment, this is a synonym for the
|
|
.Fl -check-links
|
|
option.
|
|
Otherwise, an error will be displayed.
|
|
Users who desire behavior compatible with GNU tar should use
|
|
the
|
|
.Fl -one-file-system
|
|
option instead.
|
|
.It Fl m
|
|
(x mode only)
|
|
Do not extract modification time.
|
|
By default, the modification time is set to the time stored in the archive.
|
|
.It Fl n
|
|
(c, r, u modes only)
|
|
Do not recursively archive the contents of directories.
|
|
.It Fl -newer Ar date ( Fl W Cm newer Ns = Ns Ar date )
|
|
(c, r, u modes only)
|
|
Only include files and directories newer than the specified date.
|
|
This compares ctime entries.
|
|
.It Fl -newer-mtime Ar date ( Fl W Cm newer-mtime Ns = Ns Ar date )
|
|
(c, r, u modes only)
|
|
Like
|
|
.Fl -newer ,
|
|
except it compares mtime entries instead of ctime entries.
|
|
.It Fl -newer-than Pa file ( Fl W Cm newer-than Ns = Ns Pa file )
|
|
(c, r, u modes only)
|
|
Only include files and directories newer than the specified file.
|
|
This compares ctime entries.
|
|
.It Fl -newer-mtime-than Pa file ( Fl W Cm newer-mtime-than Ns = Ns Pa file )
|
|
(c, r, u modes only)
|
|
Like
|
|
.Fl -newer-than ,
|
|
except it compares mtime entries instead of ctime entries.
|
|
.It Fl -nodump ( Fl W Cm nodump )
|
|
(c and r modes only)
|
|
Honor the nodump file flag by skipping this file.
|
|
.It Fl -null ( Fl W Cm null )
|
|
(use with
|
|
.Fl I ,
|
|
.Fl T ,
|
|
or
|
|
.Fl X )
|
|
Filenames or patterns are separated by null characters,
|
|
not by newlines.
|
|
This is often used to read filenames output by the
|
|
.Fl print0
|
|
option to
|
|
.Xr find 1 .
|
|
.It Fl O
|
|
(x, t modes only)
|
|
In extract (-x) mode, files will be written to standard out rather than
|
|
being extracted to disk.
|
|
In list (-t) mode, the file listing will be written to stderr rather than
|
|
the usual stdout.
|
|
.It Fl o
|
|
(x mode only)
|
|
Use the user and group of the user running the program rather
|
|
than those specified in the archive.
|
|
Note that this has no significance unless
|
|
.Fl p
|
|
is specified, and the program is being run by the root user.
|
|
In this case, the file modes and flags from
|
|
the archive will be restored, but ACLs or owner information in
|
|
the archive will be discarded.
|
|
.It Fl -one-file-system ( Fl W Cm one-file-system )
|
|
(c, r, and u modes)
|
|
Do not cross mount points.
|
|
.It Fl P
|
|
Preserve pathnames.
|
|
By default, absolute pathnames (those that begin with a /
|
|
character) have the leading slash removed both when creating archives
|
|
and extracting from them.
|
|
Also,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will refuse to extract archive entries whose pathnames contain
|
|
.Pa ..
|
|
or whose target directory would be altered by a symlink.
|
|
This option suppresses these behaviors.
|
|
.It Fl p
|
|
(x mode only)
|
|
Preserve file permissions.
|
|
Attempt to restore the full permissions, including owner, file modes, file
|
|
flags and ACLs, if available, for each item extracted from the archive.
|
|
By default, newly-created files are owned by the user running
|
|
.Nm ,
|
|
the file mode is restored for newly-created regular files, and
|
|
all other types of entries receive default permissions.
|
|
If
|
|
.Nm
|
|
is being run by root, the default is to restore the owner unless the
|
|
.Fl o
|
|
option is also specified.
|
|
.It Fl -strip-components Ar count ( Fl W Cm strip-components Ns = Ns Ar count )
|
|
(x and t mode only)
|
|
Remove the specified number of leading path elements.
|
|
Pathnames with fewer elements will be silently skipped.
|
|
Note that the pathname is edited after checking inclusion/exclusion patterns
|
|
but before security checks.
|
|
.It Fl T Ar filename
|
|
In x or t mode,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will read the list of names to be extracted from
|
|
.Pa filename .
|
|
In c mode,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will read names to be archived from
|
|
.Pa filename .
|
|
The special name
|
|
.Dq -C
|
|
on a line by itself will cause the current directory to be changed to
|
|
the directory specified on the following line.
|
|
Names are terminated by newlines unless
|
|
.Fl -null
|
|
is specified.
|
|
Note that
|
|
.Fl -null
|
|
also disables the special handling of lines containing
|
|
.Dq -C .
|
|
.It Fl U
|
|
(x mode only)
|
|
Unlink files before creating them.
|
|
Without this option,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
overwrites existing files, which preserves existing hardlinks.
|
|
With this option, existing hardlinks will be broken, as will any
|
|
symlink that would affect the location of an extracted file.
|
|
.It Fl v
|
|
Produce verbose output.
|
|
In create and extract modes,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will list each file name as it is read from or written to
|
|
the archive.
|
|
In list mode,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will produce output similar to that of
|
|
.Xr ls 1 .
|
|
Additional
|
|
.Fl v
|
|
options will provide additional detail.
|
|
.It Fl W Ar longopt=value
|
|
Long options (preceded by
|
|
.Fl - )
|
|
are only supported directly on systems that have the
|
|
.Xr getopt_long 3
|
|
function.
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl W
|
|
option can be used to access long options on systems that
|
|
do not support this function.
|
|
.It Fl w
|
|
Ask for confirmation for every action.
|
|
.It Fl X Ar filename
|
|
Read a list of exclusion patterns from the specified file.
|
|
See
|
|
.Fl -exclude
|
|
for more information about the handling of exclusions.
|
|
.It Fl y
|
|
(c mode only)
|
|
Compress the resulting archive with
|
|
.Xr bzip2 1 .
|
|
In extract or list modes, this option is ignored.
|
|
Note that, unlike other
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
implementations, this implementation recognizes bzip2 compression
|
|
automatically when reading archives.
|
|
.It Fl z
|
|
(c mode only)
|
|
Compress the resulting archive with
|
|
.Xr gzip 1 .
|
|
In extract or list modes, this option is ignored.
|
|
Note that, unlike other
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
implementations, this implementation recognizes gzip compression
|
|
automatically when reading archives.
|
|
.El
|
|
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
|
|
The following environment variables affect the execution of
|
|
.Nm :
|
|
.Bl -tag -width ".Ev BLOCKSIZE"
|
|
.It Ev LANG
|
|
The locale to use.
|
|
See
|
|
.Xr environ 7
|
|
for more information.
|
|
.It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
|
|
If this environment variable is defined, the
|
|
.Fl l
|
|
option will be interpreted in accordance with
|
|
.St -p1003.1-96 .
|
|
.It Ev TAPE
|
|
The default tape device.
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl f
|
|
option overrides this.
|
|
.It Ev TZ
|
|
The timezone to use when displaying dates.
|
|
See
|
|
.Xr environ 7
|
|
for more information.
|
|
.El
|
|
.Sh FILES
|
|
.Bl -tag -width ".Ev BLOCKSIZE"
|
|
.It Pa /dev/sa0
|
|
The default tape device, if not overridden by the
|
|
.Ev TAPE
|
|
environment variable or the
|
|
.Fl f
|
|
option.
|
|
.El
|
|
.Sh EXIT STATUS
|
|
.Ex -std
|
|
.Sh EXAMPLES
|
|
The following creates a new archive
|
|
called
|
|
.Ar file.tar
|
|
that contains two files
|
|
.Ar source.c
|
|
and
|
|
.Ar source.h :
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl czf Pa file.tar Pa source.c Pa source.h
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To view a detailed table of contents for this
|
|
archive:
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl tvf Pa file.tar
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To extract all entries from the archive on
|
|
the default tape drive:
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl x
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To move file hierarchies, invoke
|
|
.Nm
|
|
as
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl cf Pa - Fl C Pa srcdir\ . | Nm Fl xpBf Pa - Fl C Pa destdir
|
|
or more traditionally
|
|
.Dl cd srcdir \; Nm Fl cf Pa -\ . | ( cd destdir \; Nm Fl xpBf Pa - )
|
|
.Pp
|
|
In create mode, the list of files and directories to be archived
|
|
can also include directory change instructions of the form
|
|
.Cm -C Ns Pa foo/baz
|
|
and archive inclusions of the form
|
|
.Cm @ Ns Pa archive-file .
|
|
For example, the command line
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl c Fl f Pa new.tar Pa foo1 Cm @ Ns Pa old.tgz Cm -C Ns Pa /tmp Pa foo2
|
|
will create a new archive
|
|
.Pa new.tar .
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will read the file
|
|
.Pa foo1
|
|
from the current directory and add it to the output archive.
|
|
It will then read each entry from
|
|
.Pa old.tgz
|
|
and add those entries to the output archive.
|
|
Finally, it will switch to the
|
|
.Pa /tmp
|
|
directory and add
|
|
.Pa foo2
|
|
to the output archive.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl -newer
|
|
and
|
|
.Fl -newer-mtime
|
|
switches accept a variety of common date and time specifications, including
|
|
.Dq 12 Mar 2005 7:14:29pm ,
|
|
.Dq 2005-03-12 19:14 ,
|
|
.Dq 5 minutes ago ,
|
|
and
|
|
.Dq 19:14 PST May 1 .
|
|
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
|
|
The bundled-arguments format is supported for compatibility
|
|
with historic implementations.
|
|
It consists of an initial word (with no leading - character) in which
|
|
each character indicates an option.
|
|
Arguments follow as separate words.
|
|
The order of the arguments must match the order
|
|
of the corresponding characters in the bundled command word.
|
|
For example,
|
|
.Dl Nm Cm tbf 32 Pa file.tar
|
|
specifies three flags
|
|
.Cm t ,
|
|
.Cm b ,
|
|
and
|
|
.Cm f .
|
|
The
|
|
.Cm b
|
|
and
|
|
.Cm f
|
|
flags both require arguments,
|
|
so there must be two additional items
|
|
on the command line.
|
|
The
|
|
.Ar 32
|
|
is the argument to the
|
|
.Cm b
|
|
flag, and
|
|
.Ar file.tar
|
|
is the argument to the
|
|
.Cm f
|
|
flag.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The mode options c, r, t, u, and x and the options
|
|
b, f, l, m, o, v, and w comply with SUSv2.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
For maximum portability, scripts that invoke
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
should use the bundled-argument format above, should limit
|
|
themselves to the
|
|
.Cm c ,
|
|
.Cm t ,
|
|
and
|
|
.Cm x
|
|
modes, and the
|
|
.Cm b ,
|
|
.Cm f ,
|
|
.Cm m ,
|
|
.Cm v ,
|
|
and
|
|
.Cm w
|
|
options.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
On systems that support getopt_long(), additional long options
|
|
are available to improve compatibility with other tar implementations.
|
|
.Sh SECURITY
|
|
Certain security issues are common to many archiving programs, including
|
|
.Nm .
|
|
In particular, carefully-crafted archives can request that
|
|
.Nm
|
|
extract files to locations outside of the target directory.
|
|
This can potentially be used to cause unwitting users to overwrite
|
|
files they did not intend to overwrite.
|
|
If the archive is being extracted by the superuser, any file
|
|
on the system can potentially be overwritten.
|
|
There are three ways this can happen.
|
|
Although
|
|
.Nm
|
|
has mechanisms to protect against each one,
|
|
savvy users should be aware of the implications:
|
|
.Bl -bullet -width indent
|
|
.It
|
|
Archive entries can have absolute pathnames.
|
|
By default,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
removes the leading
|
|
.Pa /
|
|
character from filenames before restoring them to guard against this problem.
|
|
.It
|
|
Archive entries can have pathnames that include
|
|
.Pa ..
|
|
components.
|
|
By default,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will not extract files containing
|
|
.Pa ..
|
|
components in their pathname.
|
|
.It
|
|
Archive entries can exploit symbolic links to restore
|
|
files to other directories.
|
|
An archive can restore a symbolic link to another directory,
|
|
then use that link to restore a file into that directory.
|
|
To guard against this,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
checks each extracted path for symlinks.
|
|
If the final path element is a symlink, it will be removed
|
|
and replaced with the archive entry.
|
|
If
|
|
.Fl U
|
|
is specified, any intermediate symlink will also be unconditionally removed.
|
|
If neither
|
|
.Fl U
|
|
nor
|
|
.Fl P
|
|
is specified,
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will refuse to extract the entry.
|
|
.El
|
|
To protect yourself, you should be wary of any archives that
|
|
come from untrusted sources.
|
|
You should examine the contents of an archive with
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl tf Pa filename
|
|
before extraction.
|
|
You should use the
|
|
.Fl k
|
|
option to ensure that
|
|
.Nm
|
|
will not overwrite any existing files or the
|
|
.Fl U
|
|
option to remove any pre-existing files.
|
|
You should generally not extract archives while running with super-user
|
|
privileges.
|
|
Note that the
|
|
.Fl P
|
|
option to
|
|
.Nm
|
|
disables the security checks above and allows you to extract
|
|
an archive while preserving any absolute pathnames,
|
|
.Pa ..
|
|
components, or symlinks to other directories.
|
|
.Sh SEE ALSO
|
|
.Xr bzip2 1 ,
|
|
.Xr cpio 1 ,
|
|
.Xr gzip 1 ,
|
|
.Xr mt 1 ,
|
|
.Xr pax 1 ,
|
|
.Xr shar 1 ,
|
|
.Xr libarchive 3 ,
|
|
.Xr libarchive-formats 5 ,
|
|
.Xr tar 5
|
|
.Sh STANDARDS
|
|
There is no current POSIX standard for the tar command; it appeared
|
|
in
|
|
.St -p1003.1-96
|
|
but was dropped from
|
|
.St -p1003.1-2001 .
|
|
The options used by this implementation were developed by surveying a
|
|
number of existing tar implementations as well as the old POSIX specification
|
|
for tar and the current POSIX specification for pax.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The ustar and pax interchange file formats are defined by
|
|
.St -p1003.1-2001
|
|
for the pax command.
|
|
.Sh HISTORY
|
|
A
|
|
.Nm tar
|
|
command appeared in Seventh Edition Unix.
|
|
There have been numerous other implementations,
|
|
many of which extended the file format.
|
|
John Gilmore's
|
|
.Nm pdtar
|
|
public-domain implementation (circa November, 1987)
|
|
was quite influential, and formed the basis of GNU tar.
|
|
GNU tar was included as the standard system tar
|
|
in FreeBSD beginning with FreeBSD 1.0.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
This is a complete re-implementation based on the
|
|
.Xr libarchive 3
|
|
library.
|
|
.Sh BUGS
|
|
POSIX and GNU violently disagree about the meaning of the
|
|
.Fl l
|
|
option.
|
|
Because of the potential for disaster if someone expects
|
|
one behavior and gets the other, the
|
|
.Fl l
|
|
option is deliberately broken in this implementation.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The
|
|
.Fl C Pa dir
|
|
option may differ from historic implementations.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
All archive output is written in correctly-sized blocks, even
|
|
if the output is being compressed.
|
|
Whether or not the last output block is padded to a full
|
|
block size varies depending on the format and the
|
|
output device.
|
|
For tar and cpio formats, the last block of output is padded
|
|
to a full block size if the output is being
|
|
written to standard output or to a character or block device such as
|
|
a tape drive.
|
|
If the output is being written to a regular file, the last block
|
|
will not be padded.
|
|
Many compressors, including
|
|
.Xr gzip 1
|
|
and
|
|
.Xr bzip2 1 ,
|
|
complain about the null padding when decompressing an archive created by
|
|
.Nm ,
|
|
although they still extract it correctly.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The compression and decompression is implemented internally, so
|
|
there may be insignificant differences between the compressed output
|
|
generated by
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl czf Pa - file
|
|
and that generated by
|
|
.Dl Nm Fl cf Pa - file | Nm gzip
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The default should be to read and write archives to the standard I/O paths,
|
|
but tradition (and POSIX) dictates otherwise.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
The
|
|
.Cm r
|
|
and
|
|
.Cm u
|
|
modes require that the archive be uncompressed
|
|
and located in a regular file on disk.
|
|
Other archives can be modified using
|
|
.Cm c
|
|
mode with the
|
|
.Pa @archive-file
|
|
extension.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
To archive a file called
|
|
.Pa @foo
|
|
or
|
|
.Pa -foo
|
|
you must specify it as
|
|
.Pa ./@foo
|
|
or
|
|
.Pa ./-foo ,
|
|
respectively.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
In create mode, a leading
|
|
.Pa ./
|
|
is always removed.
|
|
A leading
|
|
.Pa /
|
|
is stripped unless the
|
|
.Fl P
|
|
option is specified.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
There needs to be better support for file selection on both create
|
|
and extract.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
There is not yet any support for multi-volume archives or for archiving
|
|
sparse files.
|
|
.Pp
|
|
Converting between dissimilar archive formats (such as tar and cpio) using the
|
|
.Cm @ Ns Pa -
|
|
convention can cause hard link information to be lost.
|
|
(This is a consequence of the incompatible ways that different archive
|
|
formats store hardlink information.)
|
|
.Pp
|
|
There are alternative long options for many of the short options that
|
|
are deliberately not documented.
|