(tar)Selection Options

Characteristics

Specifying Names to tar

Local file selection
====================

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   Local file selection

`-C DIR'
`--directory DIR'
     Change to directory DIR.

     This option causes `tar' to change into the directory DIR before
     continuing.  This option can be interspersed with the files `tar'
     is to work on.  For example,

          tar -c iggy ziggy -C baz melvin

     will place the files `iggy' and `ziggy' from the current directory
     on the tape, followed by the file `melvin' from the directory
     `baz'.  This option is especially useful when you have several
     widely separated files that you want to store in the same
     directory in the archive.

     Here, the file `melvin' is recorded in the archive under the
     precise name `melvin', *not* `baz/melvin'.  Thus, the archive will
     contain three files that all appear to have come from the same
     directory; if the archive is extracted with plain `tar -x', all
     three files will be created in the current directory.

     Contrast this with the command:

          tar -c iggy ziggy bar/melvin

     which records the third file in the archive under the name
     `bar/melvin' so that, if plain `tar -x' is used, the third file
     will be created in a subdirectory named `bar'.

     Suppose that, without changing your current directory, you want to
     call `tar' to dump files from `/users/ctd/dipp' say.  Then
     `--directory=DIRECTORY' (`-C DIRECTORY') is for you.  You could do
     things like:

          tar cfC archive.tar /users/ctd/dipp .

     (the `.' means the current directory, once the
     `--directory=DIRECTORY' (`-C DIRECTORY') obeyed).

     Some people might want some option to extract everything from an
     archive in the current directory, ignore directory structure in
     the archive.  This is so rarely proper that I doubt such an option
     would be really useful.  It would only help getting around improper
     `tar' usage, it might even encourage improper usage.  In general,
     `--directory=DIRECTORY' (`-C DIRECTORY') might be used to produce
     archives with a cleaner structure in the first place.

`-T FILENAME'
`--files-from=FILENAME'
     Get names to extract or create from file FILENAME.

     Instead of taking the list of files to work on from the command
     line, the list of files to work on is read from the file FILENAME.
     If FILENAME is given as `-', the list is read from standard input.
     Note that using both `-T -' and `-f -' will not work unless you
     are using the `--create' (`-c') command.

     This is typically useful when you have generated the list of files
     to archive with `find'.

`--null'
     This option causes `--files-from=FILE-OF-NAMES' (`-T
     FILE-OF-NAMES') to read file names terminated by a NUL instead of
     a newline, so files whose names contain newlines can be archived
     using `--files-from=FILE-OF-NAMES' (`-T FILE-OF-NAMES').  The
     `--null' option is just like the one in GNU `xargs' and `cpio',
     and is useful with the `-print0' predicate of GNU `find'.  In
     `tar', `--null' also causes `--directory=DIRECTORY' (`-C
     DIRECTORY') options to be treated as file names to archive, in
     case there are any files out there called `-C'.

`--exclude=FILE'
     Exclude file FILE.

`-X FILE'
`--exclude-from=FILE'
     Exclude files listed in FILE.

     This option causes `tar' to read a list of regular expressions (in
     shell wildcard syntax), one per line, from FILE; `tar' will ignore
     files matching those regular expressions.  Thus if `tar' is called
     as `tar -c -X foo .' and the file `foo' contains a single line
     `*.o', no files whose names end in `.o' will be added to the
     archive.  Multiple `--exclude=PATTERN' options may be given.

`-P'
`--absolute-names'
     Do not strip leading `/'s from file names.

     By default, GNU `tar' drops a leading `/' on input or output.
     This option turns off this behavior; it's equivalent to changing
     to the root directory before running `tar' (except it also turns
     off the usual warning message).

`-l'
`--one-file-system'
     Stay in local filesystem when creating archive.

     This option causes `tar' to not cross filesystem boundaries when
     archiving parts of a directory tree.  This option only affects
     files that are archived because they are in a directory that is
     archived; files named on the command line are archived regardless,
     and they can be from various file systems.

     This option is useful for making full or incremental archival
     backups of a filesystem, as with the Unix `dump' command.

     Files skipped due to this option are mentioned on standard error.

`-K NAME'
`--starting-file=NAME'
     Begin at file NAME in the archive.

     The `--starting-file=NAME' (`-K NAME') option causes `tar' to begin
     extracting or listing the archive with the file FILENAME, and to
     consider only the files starting at that point in the archive.
     This is useful if a previous attempt to extract files failed when
     it reached FILENAME due to lack of free space.  (Assuming, of
     course, that there is now free space, or that you are now
     extracting into a different file system.)

`-N DATE'
`--newer=DATE'
`--after-date=DATE'
     Only store files newer than DATE.

     This option causes `tar' to only work on files whose modification
     or inode-changed times are newer than the DATE given.  The main
     use is for creating an archive; then only new files are written.
     If extracting, only newer files are extracted.

     Remember that the entire date argument must be quoted if it
     contains any spaces.

     The date is parsed using `getdate'.

   Changing the Names of Members when Archiving

Changing Directory

Absolute File Names