tar(1) User Commands tar(1)
NAME
tar - create tape archives and add or extract files
SYNOPSIS
tar c[BDeEFhilnopPqTvw@/[0-7]][bfk][X...] [blocksize]
[tarfile] [size] [exclude-file]...
{file | -I include-file | -C directory file}...
tar r[BDeEFhilnqTvw@/[0-7]][bfk] [blocksize] [tarfile]
[size]
{file | -I include-file | -C directory file}...
tar t[BeFhilnqTv[0-7]][fk][X...] [tarfile] [size]
[exclude-file]... {file | -I include-file}...
tar u[BDeEFhilnqTvw@/[0-7]][bfk] [blocksize] [tarfile]
[size] file...
tar x[BeFhilmnopqTvw@/[0-7]][fk][X...] [tarfile] [size]
[exclude-file]... [file]...
DESCRIPTION
The tar command archives and extracts files to and from a single file called a tarfile. A tarfile is usually a magnetic tape, but it can be
any file. tar's actions are controlled by the key argument. The key is a string of characters containing exactly one function letter (c, r,
t , u, or x) and zero or more function modifiers (letters or digits), depending on the function letter used. The key string contains no
SPACE characters. Function modifier arguments are listed on the command line in the same order as their corresponding function modifiers
appear in the key string.
The -I include-file, -C directory file, and file arguments specify which files or directories are to be archived or extracted. In all
cases, appearance of a directory name refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that directory. Arguments appearing within
braces ({ }) indicate that one of the arguments must be specified.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
-C directory file
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.
-I include-file
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 func-
tion 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.
file
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 addi-
tion, 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.
Function Letters
The function portion of the key is specified by one of the following letters:
c
Create. Writing begins at the beginning of the tarfile, instead of at the end.
r
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.
t
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.
u
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 with-
out extended headers cannot be modified with extended headers.
x
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 con-
tent 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 `tar tf ... /dev/rmt/0 |
grep 'pattern' `
When extracting tapes created with the r or u functions, directory modification times can not be set correctly. These same functions cannot
be used with many tape drives due to tape drive limitations such as the absence of backspace or append capabilities.
When using the r, u, or x functions or the X function modifier, the named files must match exactly the corresponding files in the tarfile.
For example, to extract ./thisfile, you must specify ./thisfile, and not thisfile. The t function displays how each file was archived.
Function Modifiers
The characters below can be used in conjunction with the letter that selects the desired function.
b blocksize
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.
B
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 stan-
dard input, "-", this function modifier is selected by default to ensure that tar can recover from short reads.
D
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.
e
Error. Exit immediately with a positive exit status if any unexpected errors occur. The SYSV3 environment variable overrides the
default behavior. (See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section below.)
E
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.
f
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 exam-
ple,
tar -c 2/tmp/*
writes the output to the device specified as archive2 in /etc/default/tar.
If the name of the tarfile is "-", tar writes to the standard output or reads from the standard input, whichever is appropriate. tar
can be used as the head or tail of a pipeline. tar can also be used to move hierarchies with the command:
example% cd fromdir; tar cf - .| (cd todir; tar xfBp -)
F
With one F argument, tar excludes all directories named SCCS and RCS from the tarfile. With two arguments, FF, tar excludes all direc-
tories named SCCS and RCS, all files with .o as their suffix, and all files named errs, core, and a.out. The SYSV3 environment variable
overrides the default behavior. (See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section below.)
h
Follow symbolic links as if they were normal files or directories. Normally, tar does not follow symbolic links.
i
Ignore directory checksum errors.
k size
Requires tar to use the size argument as the size of an archive in kilobytes. This is useful when the archive is intended for a fixed
size device such as floppy disks. Large files are then split across volumes if they do not fit in the specified size.
l
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.
m
Modify. The modification time of the file is the time of extraction. This function modifier is valid only with the x function.
n
The file being read is a non-tape device. Reading of the archive is faster since tar can randomly seek around the archive.
o
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.
p
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.
P
Suppress the addition of a trailing "/" on directory entries in the archive.
q
Stop after extracting the first occurrence of the named file. tar normally continues reading the archive after finding an occurrence of
a file.
T
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 specifi-
cations 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.
v
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.
w
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.
X
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 appropri-
ate 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.
@
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 sys-
tem 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.
[0-7]
Select an alternative drive on which the tape is mounted. The default entries are specified in /etc/default/tar. If no digit or f func-
tion modifier is specified, the entry in /etc/default/tar with digit "0" is the default.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of tar when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
The automatic determination of the actual blocking factor can be fooled when reading from a pipe or a socket (see the B function modifier
below).
1/4" streaming tape has an inherent blocking factor of one 512-byte block. It can be read or written using any blocking factor.
This function modifier works for archives on disk files and block special devices, among others, but is intended principally for tape
devices.
For information on tar header format, see archives.h(3HEAD).
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Creating an archive of your home directory
The following is an example using tar to create an archive of your home directory on a tape mounted on drive /dev/rmt/0:
example% cd
example% tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 .
messages from tar
The c function letter means create the archive. The v function modifier outputs messages explaining what tar is doing. The f function modi-
fier indicates that the tarfile is being specified (/dev/rmt/0 in this example). The dot (.) at the end of the command line indicates the
current directory and is the argument of the f function modifier.
Display the table of contents of the tarfile with the following command:
example% tar tvf /dev/rmt/0
The output is similar to the following for the POSIX locale:
rw-r--r-- 1677/40 2123 Nov 7 18:15 1985 ./test.c
...
example%
The columns have the following meanings:
o column 1 is the access permissions to ./test.c
o column 2 is the user-id/group-id of ./test.c
o column 3 is the size of ./test.c in bytes
o 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.
o column 5 is the name of ./test.c
To extract files from the archive:
example% tar xvf /dev/rmt/0
messages from tar
example%
If there are multiple archive files on a tape, each is separated from the following one by an EOF marker. To have tar read the first and
second archives from a tape with multiple archives on it, the non-rewinding version of the tape device name must be used with the f func-
tion modifier, as follows:
example% tar xvfp /dev/rmt/0n read first archive from tape
messages from tar
example% tar xvfp /dev/rmt/0n read second archive from tape
messages from tar
example%
Notice that in some earlier releases, the above scenario did not work correctly, and intervention with mt(1) between tar invocations was
necessary. To emulate the old behavior, use the non-rewind device name containing the letter b for BSD behavior. See the Close Operations
section of the mtio(7I) manual page.
Example 2 Archiving files from /usr/include and from /etc to default tape drive 0
To archive files from /usr/include and from /etc to default tape drive 0:
example% tar c -C /usr include -C /etc .
The table of contents from the resulting tarfile would produce output like the following:
include/
include/a.out.h
and all the other files in /usr/include ...
./chown and all the other files in /etc
To extract all files in the include directory:
example% tar xv include
x include/, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
and all files under include ...
Example 3 Transferring files across the network
The following is an example using tar to transfer files across the network. First, here is how to archive files from the local machine
(example) to a tape on a remote system (host):
example% tar cvfb - 20 files|
rsh host dd of=/dev/rmt/0 obs=20b
messages from tar
example%
In the example above, we are creating a tarfile with the c key letter, asking for verbose output from tar with the v function modifier,
specifying the name of the output tarfile using the f function modifier (the standard output is where the tarfile appears, as indicated by
the `-' sign), and specifying the blocksize(20) with the b function modifier. If you want to change the blocksize, you must change the
blocksize arguments both on the tar command and on the dd command.
Example 4 Retrieving files from a tape on the remote system back to the local system
The following is an example that uses tar to retrieve files from a tape on the remote system back to the local system:
example% rsh -n host dd if=/dev/rmt/0 bs=20b |
tar xvBfb - 20 files
messages from tar
example%
In the example above, we are extracting from the tarfile with the x key letter, asking for verbose output from tar with the v function mod-
ifier, telling tar it is reading from a pipe with the B function modifier, specifying the name of the input tarfile using the f function
modifier (the standard input is where the tarfile appears, as indicated by the "-" sign), and specifying the blocksize(20) with the b
function modifier.
Example 5 Creating an archive of the home directory
The following example creates an archive of the home directory on /dev/rmt/0 with an actual blocking factor of 19:
example% tar cvfb /dev/rmt/0 19 $HOME
To recognize this archive's actual blocking factor without using the b function modifier:
example% tar tvf /dev/rmt/0
tar: blocksize = 19
...
To recognize this archive's actual blocking factor using a larger nominal blocking factor:
example% tar tvf /dev/rmt/0 30
tar: blocksize = 19
...
Attempt to recognize this archive's actual blocking factor using a nominal blocking factor that is too small:
example% tar tvf /dev/rmt/0 10
tar: tape read error
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
SYSV3
This variable is used to override the default behavior of tar, provide compatibility with INTERACTIVE UNIX Systems and SCO UNIX instal-
lation scripts, and should not be used in new scripts. (It is intended for compatibility purposes only.) When set, the following func-
tion modifiers behave differently:
F filename
Uses filename to obtain a list of command line switches and files on which to operate.
e
Prevents files from being split across volumes. If there is insufficient room on one volume, tar prompts for a new volume. If the
file does not fit on the new volume, tar exits with an error.
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of tar: LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
LC_TIME, TZ, and NLSPATH.
Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category of
the user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category defines the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character
collating elements used in the expression defined for yesexpr. The locale specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the behavior of character classes used in the expression defined for the yesexpr. See
locale(5).
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0
Successful completion.
>0
An error occurred.
FILES
/dev/rmt/[0-7][b][n]
/dev/rmt/[0-7]l[b][n]
/dev/rmt/[0-7]m[b][n]
/dev/rmt/[0-7]h[b][n]
/dev/rmt/[0-7]u[b][n]
/dev/rmt/[0-7]c[b][n]
/etc/default/tar
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
/tmp/tar*
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|CSI |Enabled |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Committed |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
ar(1), basename(1), cd(1), chown(1), cpio(1), csh(1), dirname(1), find(1), ls(1), mt(1), pax(1), setfacl(1), umask(1), mknod(1M), ar-
chives.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), environ(5), fsattr(5), largefile(5), mtio(7I)
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostic messages are output for bad key characters and tape read/write errors, and for insufficient memory to hold the link tables.
NOTES
There is no way to access the n-th occurrence of a file.
Tape errors are handled ungracefully.
The tar archive format allows UIDs and GIDs up to 2097151 to be stored in the archive header. Files with UIDs and GIDs greater than this
value is archived with the UID and GID of 60001.
If an archive is created that contains files whose names were created by processes running in multiple locales, a single locale that uses a
full 8-bit codeset (for example, the en_US locale) should be used both to create the archive and to extract files from the archive.
Neither the r function letter nor the u function letter can be used with quarter-inch archive tapes, since these tape drives cannot
backspace.
Since tar has no options, the standard "--" argument that is normally used in other utilities to terminate recognition of options is not
needed. If used, it is recognized only as the first argument and is ignored.
Since -C directory file and -I include-file are multi-argument operands, any of the following methods can be used to archive or extract a
file named -C or -I:
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
or
-C directory -I
4. Specify the entire directory in which the file resides:
-C directory .
SunOS 5.11 26 Oct 2007 tar(1)