Silicon Graphics IRIS Workstation User Manual page 121

TAR(1)
NAME
tar - tape archiver
SYNOPSIS
tar key [ name ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Tar saves and restores multiple files on a single file (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 at most one function letter and possi-
bly one or more function modifiers. Other arguments to tar are file or direc-
tory names specifying which files to dump or restore. In all cases, appear -
ance of a directory name refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of
that directory. These files are dumped to tape in alphabetical order.
A tar archive is a stream of 512-byte header structures which may be fol-
lowed by file data rounded up to the next 512-byte boundary. The end of
the archive is signaled by two header structures beginning with null bytes.
The function portion of the key is specified by one of the following letters:
r The named files are written on the end of the tape. The c function
implies this.
x The named files are extracted from the tape. If the named file
matches a directory whose contents had been written onto the tape,
this directory is
time, and mode are restored (if possible). If no file argument is
given, the entire content of the tape is extracted. Note that it multi -
ple entries specifying the same file are on the tape, the last one
overwrites all earlier.
X
Like x but also takes the next argument as the root of a directory
tree for comparison. For each file to be extracted, if it is identical to
the file in the corresponding position in the comparison tree, the
existing file is linked to the new file. Otherwise, the new file is
extracted as a separate new file as usual.
t The names of the specified files are listed each time they occur on
the tape. If no file argument is given, all of the names on the tape
are listed.
u
The named files are added to the tape if either they are not already
there or have been modified since last put on the tape.
c
Create a new tape; writing begins on the beginning of the tape
instead of after the last file. This command implies r.
C Compare files on tape against existing files. For each specified file,
print a line with a key character followed by the file name.
October 1984
Silicon Graphics
recursively) extracted. The owner, modification
L linked to an earlier file on the tape
S symbolic link
B block special file
C character special file
P named pipe
? can't read the disk file, so can't compare
> disk file doesn't exist
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TAR(1)
Version 1.0