(tar)Combining Archives

Removing Archive Members

Updating an Archive

Basic tar Operations

Combining Archives
==================

     *(This message will disappear, once this node revised.)*

   The `--concatenate' (`-A') or {No Value For "catenate"} option
causes `tar' to add the contents of several archives to an existing
archive.

   Name the archives to be catenated on the command line.  (Nothing
happens if you don't list any.)  The members, and their member names,
will be copied verbatim from those archives.  If this causes multiple
members to have the same name, it does not delete either; all the
members with the same name coexist.  For information on how this
affects reading the archive,
FIXME: ref Multiple Members with the Same Name
   .

   You must use this option to concatenate archives.  If you just
combine them with `cat', the result will not be a valid `tar' format
archive.

   This operation cannot be performed on some tape drives,
unfortunately, due to deficiencies in the formats thoes tape drives use.

   To append copies of an archive or archives to the end of another
archive, use `--concatenate' (`-A').  The source and target archives
must already exist and have been created using compatable format
parameters (
FIXME: pxref Matching Format Parameters
   ).

   `tar' will stop reading an archive if it encounters an
end-of-archive marker.  The `cat' utility does not remove
end-of-archive markers, and is therefore unsuitable for concatenating
archives.  `--concatenate' (`-A') removes the end-of-archive marker
from the target archive before each new archive is appended.
FIXME: xref ignore-zeros

   You must specify the source archives using `--file=ARCHIVE-NAME'
(`-f ARCHIVE-NAME') (
FIXME: pxref Archive
Name
   ).  If you do not specify the target archive , `tar' uses the value
of the environment variable `TAPE', or, if this has not been set, the
default archive name.

   The following example adds the contents of the archive
`hail/hail/fredonia' to the archive `stooges' (both archives were
created in examples above):

     tar --catenate --file=stooges hail/hail/fredonia

   If you need to retrieve files from an archive that was added to using
the `cat' utility, use the `--ignore-zeros' (`-i') option (
FIXME: pxref Archive Reading Options
   ).