Provided by: tar_1.34+dfsg-1build3_amd64 bug

NAME

       tar - an archiving utility

SYNOPSIS

   Traditional usage
       tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]

   UNIX-style usage
       tar -A [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

       tar -c [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -d [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -t [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar -r [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -u [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -x [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

   GNU-style usage
       tar {--catenate|--concatenate} [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

       tar --create [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar {--diff|--compare} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --delete [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar --append [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --list [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar --test-label [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [LABEL...]

       tar --update [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --update [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar {--extract|--get} [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

NOTE

       This  manpage  is  a  short  description of GNU tar.  For a detailed discussion, including
       examples and usage recommendations, refer to the  GNU  Tar  Manual  available  in  texinfo
       format.   If  the  info  reader  and  the tar documentation are properly installed on your
       system, the command

           info tar

       should give you access to the complete manual.

       You can also view the manual using the info mode  in  emacs(1),  or  find  it  in  various
       formats online at

           http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

       If any discrepancies occur between this manpage and the GNU Tar Manual, the later shall be
       considered the authoritative source.

DESCRIPTION

       GNU tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files  in  a  single  file  (an
       archive),  and to manipulate such archives.  The archive can be either a regular file or a
       device (e.g. a tape drive, hence the name of the program, which stands for tape archiver),
       which can be located either on the local or on a remote machine.

   Option styles
       Options  to  GNU  tar  can  be given in three different styles.  In traditional style, the
       first argument is a  cluster  of  option  letters  and  all  subsequent  arguments  supply
       arguments to those options that require them.  The arguments are read in the same order as
       the option letters.  Any command line  words  that  remain  after  all  options  has  been
       processed are treated as non-optional arguments: file or archive member names.

       For example, the c option requires creating the archive, the v option requests the verbose
       operation, and the f option takes an argument that sets the name of the archive to operate
       upon.  The following command, written in the traditional style, instructs tar to store all
       files from the directory /etc into the archive file etc.tar verbosely  listing  the  files
       being archived:

       tar cfv etc.tar /etc

       In  UNIX  or  short-option style, each option letter is prefixed with a single dash, as in
       other command line utilities.  If an option  takes  argument,  the  argument  follows  it,
       either  as a separate command line word, or immediately following the option.  However, if
       the option takes an optional argument, the argument must follow the option letter  without
       any intervening whitespace, as in -g/tmp/snar.db.

       Any  number of options not taking arguments can be clustered together after a single dash,
       e.g. -vkp.  Options that take arguments (whether mandatory or optional), can appear at the
       end of such a cluster, e.g. -vkpf a.tar.

       The example command above written in the short-option style could look like:

       tar -cvf etc.tar /etc
       or
       tar -c -v -f etc.tar /etc

       In GNU or long-option style, each option begins with two dashes and has a meaningful name,
       consisting of  lower-case  letters  and  dashes.   When  used,  the  long  option  can  be
       abbreviated  to  its  initial  letters,  provided  that  this  does  not create ambiguity.
       Arguments to long options are supplied either as a separate command line word, immediately
       following  the  option, or separated from the option by an equals sign with no intervening
       whitespace.  Optional arguments must always use the latter method.

       Here are several ways of writing the example command in this style:

       tar --create --file etc.tar --verbose /etc
       or (abbreviating some options):
       tar --cre --file=etc.tar --verb /etc

       The options in all three styles can be intermixed, although doing so with old  options  is
       not encouraged.

   Operation mode
       The  options  listed  in  the  table  below  tell GNU tar what operation it is to perform.
       Exactly one of them must be given.  Meaning  of  non-optional  arguments  depends  on  the
       operation mode requested.

       -A, --catenate, --concatenate
              Append  archive  to  the  end of another archive.  The arguments are treated as the
              names of archives to append.  All archives must  be  of  the  same  format  as  the
              archive  they  are  appended  to, otherwise the resulting archive might be unusable
              with non-GNU implementations of tar.  Notice also that when more than  one  archive
              is  given, the members from archives other than the first one will be accessible in
              the resulting archive only if using the -i (--ignore-zeros) option.

              Compressed archives cannot be concatenated.

       -c, --create
              Create a new archive.  Arguments supply the names of  the  files  to  be  archived.
              Directories are archived recursively, unless the --no-recursion option is given.

       -d, --diff, --compare
              Find  differences  between archive and file system.  The arguments are optional and
              specify archive members to compare.  If not given, the current working directory is
              assumed.

       --delete
              Delete  from  the archive.  The arguments supply names of the archive members to be
              removed.  At least one argument must be given.

              This option does not operate on compressed archives.   There  is  no  short  option
              equivalent.

       -r, --append
              Append  files  to the end of an archive.  Arguments have the same meaning as for -c
              (--create).

       -t, --list
              List the contents of an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When given, they specify
              the names of the members to list.

       --test-label
              Test the archive volume label and exit.  When used without arguments, it prints the
              volume label (if any) and exits with status 0.   When  one  or  more  command  line
              arguments  are  given.  tar compares the volume label with each argument.  It exits
              with code 0 if a match  is  found,  and  with  code  1  otherwise.   No  output  is
              displayed, unless used together with the -v (--verbose) option.

              There is no short option equivalent for this option.

       -u, --update
              Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the archive.  Arguments
              have the same meaning as with -c and -r options.  Notice, that  newer  files  don't
              replace  their  old archive copies, but instead are appended to the end of archive.
              The  resulting  archive  can  thus  contain  several  members  of  the  same  name,
              corresponding to various versions of the same file.

       -x, --extract, --get
              Extract  files  from an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When given, they specify
              names of the archive members to be extracted.

       --show-defaults
              Show built-in defaults for various tar options and exit.  No arguments are allowed.

       -?, --help
              Display a short option summary and exit.  No arguments allowed.

       --usage
              Display a list of available options and exit.  No arguments allowed.

       --version
              Print program version and copyright information and exit.

OPTIONS

   Operation modifiers
       --check-device
              Check device numbers when creating incremental archives (default).

       -g, --listed-incremental=FILE
              Handle new GNU-format incremental backups.  FILE is the name of  a  snapshot  file,
              where tar stores additional information which is used to decide which files changed
              since the previous incremental dump and, consequently, must be  dumped  again.   If
              FILE does not exist when creating an archive, it will be created and all files will
              be added to the resulting archive  (the  level  0  dump).   To  create  incremental
              archives of non-zero level N, create a copy of the snapshot file created during the
              level N-1, and use it as FILE.

              When listing or extracting, the actual contents of FILE is  not  inspected,  it  is
              needed  only  due  to syntactical requirements.  It is therefore common practice to
              use /dev/null in its place.

       --hole-detection=METHOD
              Use METHOD to detect holes in sparse files.  This option implies  --sparse.   Valid
              values  for METHOD are seek and raw.  Default is seek with fallback to raw when not
              applicable.

       -G, --incremental
              Handle old GNU-format incremental backups.

       --ignore-failed-read
              Do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files.

       --level=NUMBER
              Set dump level for created listed-incremental archive.  Currently only --level=0 is
              meaningful:  it instructs tar to truncate the snapshot file before dumping, thereby
              forcing a level 0 dump.

       -n, --seek
              Assume the archive is seekable.  Normally tar determines automatically whether  the
              archive  can  be seeked or not.  This option is intended for use in cases when such
              recognition fails.  It takes effect only if the archive is open for  reading  (e.g.
              with --list or --extract options).

       --no-check-device
              Do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives.

       --no-seek
              Assume the archive is not seekable.

       --occurrence[=N]
              Process  only the Nth occurrence of each file in the archive.  This option is valid
              only when used with one of the following subcommands: --delete,  --diff,  --extract
              or  --list  and when a list of files is given either on the command line or via the
              -T option.  The default N is 1.

       --restrict
              Disable the use of some potentially harmful options.

       --sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
              Set version of the sparse format to use (implies --sparse).   This  option  implies
              --sparse.   Valid argument values are 0.0, 0.1, and 1.0.  For a detailed discussion
              of sparse formats, refer to the GNU  Tar  Manual,  appendix  D,  "Sparse  Formats".
              Using  info  reader,  it  can  be  accessed running the following command: info tar
              'Sparse Formats'.

       -S, --sparse
              Handle sparse files efficiently.  Some files in the file system may  have  segments
              which  were actually never written (quite often these are database files created by
              such systems as DBM).  When given this option, tar attempts  to  determine  if  the
              file  is  sparse  prior to archiving it, and if so, to reduce the resulting archive
              size by not dumping empty parts of the file.

   Overwrite control
       These options control tar actions when extracting a file over an existing copy on disk.

       -k, --keep-old-files
              Don't replace existing files when extracting.

       --keep-newer-files
              Don't replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies.

       --keep-directory-symlink
              Don't replace existing symlinks to directories when extracting.

       --no-overwrite-dir
              Preserve metadata of existing directories.

       --one-top-level[=DIR]
              Extract all files into DIR, or, if used without argument, into a subdirectory named
              by  the  base name of the archive (minus standard compression suffixes recognizable
              by --auto-compress).

       --overwrite
              Overwrite existing files when extracting.

       --overwrite-dir
              Overwrite metadata of existing directories when extracting (default).

       --recursive-unlink
              Recursively remove all files in the directory prior to extracting it.

       --remove-files
              Remove files from disk after adding them to the archive.

       --skip-old-files
              Don't replace existing files when extracting, silently skip over them.

       -U, --unlink-first
              Remove each file prior to extracting over it.

       -W, --verify
              Verify the archive after writing it.

   Output stream selection
       --ignore-command-error

       Ignore subprocess exit codes.

       --no-ignore-command-error
              Treat non-zero exit codes of children as error (default).

       -O, --to-stdout
              Extract files to standard output.

       --to-command=COMMAND
              Pipe extracted files to COMMAND.  The argument  is  the  pathname  of  an  external
              program,  optionally  with command line arguments.  The program will be invoked and
              the contents of the file being extracted supplied to  it  on  its  standard  input.
              Additional data will be supplied via the following environment variables:

              TAR_FILETYPE
                     Type of the file. It is a single letter with the following meaning:

                             f           Regular file
                             d           Directory
                             l           Symbolic link
                             h           Hard link
                             b           Block device
                             c           Character device

                     Currently only regular files are supported.

              TAR_MODE
                     File mode, an octal number.

              TAR_FILENAME
                     The name of the file.

              TAR_REALNAME
                     Name of the file as stored in the archive.

              TAR_UNAME
                     Name of the file owner.

              TAR_GNAME
                     Name of the file owner group.

              TAR_ATIME
                     Time  of last access. It is a decimal number, representing seconds since the
                     Epoch.  If  the  archive  provides  times  with  nanosecond  precision,  the
                     nanoseconds are appended to the timestamp after a decimal point.

              TAR_MTIME
                     Time of last modification.

              TAR_CTIME
                     Time of last status change.

              TAR_SIZE
                     Size of the file.

              TAR_UID
                     UID of the file owner.

              TAR_GID
                     GID of the file owner.

              Additionally,  the following variables contain information about tar operation mode
              and the archive being processed:

              TAR_VERSION
                     GNU tar version number.

              TAR_ARCHIVE
                     The name of the archive tar is processing.

              TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                     Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

              TAR_VOLUME
                     Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing  (set  if  reading  a  multi-
                     volume archive).

              TAR_FORMAT
                     Format  of  the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar,
                     v7.

              TAR_SUBCOMMAND
                     A short option (with  a  leading  dash)  describing  the  operation  tar  is
                     executing.

   Handling of file attributes
       --atime-preserve[=METHOD]
              Preserve  access times on dumped files, either by restoring the times after reading
              (METHOD=replace, this is the default) or by not setting  the  times  in  the  first
              place (METHOD=system)

       --delay-directory-restore
              Delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted directories until the
              end of extraction.  Use this option when  extracting  from  an  archive  which  has
              unusual member ordering.

       --group=NAME[:GID]
              Force  NAME as group for added files.  If GID is not supplied, NAME can be either a
              user name or numeric GID.  In this case the missing part  (GID  or  name)  will  be
              inferred from the current host's group database.

              When  used with --group-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner group is not
              listed in FILE.

       --group-map=FILE
              Read group translation map from FILE.   Empty  lines  are  ignored.   Comments  are
              introduced  with # sign and extend to the end of line.  Each non-empty line in FILE
              defines translation for a single group.  It must consist of two  fields,  delimited
              by any amount of whitespace:

              OLDGRP NEWGRP[:NEWGID]

              OLDGRP  is  either  a  valid group name or a GID prefixed with +.  Unless NEWGID is
              supplied, NEWGRP must also be either a valid group name or a +GID.  Otherwise, both
              NEWGRP and NEWGID need not be listed in the system group database.

              As a result, each input file with owner group OLDGRP will be stored in archive with
              owner group NEWGRP and GID NEWGID.

       --mode=CHANGES
              Force symbolic mode CHANGES for added files.

       --mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
              Set mtime for added files.  DATE-OR-FILE is either a date/time in almost  arbitrary
              format, or the name of an existing file.  In the latter case the mtime of that file
              will be used.

       -m, --touch
              Don't extract file modified time.

       --no-delay-directory-restore
              Cancel the effect of the prior --delay-directory-restore option.

       --no-same-owner
              Extract files as yourself (default for ordinary users).

       --no-same-permissions
              Apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from the  archive  (default  for
              ordinary users).

       --numeric-owner
              Always use numbers for user/group names.

       --owner=NAME[:UID]
              Force  NAME as owner for added files.  If UID is not supplied, NAME can be either a
              user name or numeric UID.  In this case the missing part  (UID  or  name)  will  be
              inferred from the current host's user database.

              When used with --owner-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner is not listed
              in FILE.

       --owner-map=FILE
              Read owner translation map from FILE.   Empty  lines  are  ignored.   Comments  are
              introduced  with # sign and extend to the end of line.  Each non-empty line in FILE
              defines translation for a single UID.  It must consist of two fields, delimited  by
              any amount of whitespace:

              OLDUSR NEWUSR[:NEWUID]

              OLDUSR  is  either  a  valid  user name or a UID prefixed with +.  Unless NEWUID is
              supplied, NEWUSR must also be either a valid user name or a +UID.  Otherwise,  both
              NEWUSR and NEWUID need not be listed in the system user database.

              As  a  result, each input file owned by OLDUSR will be stored in archive with owner
              name NEWUSR and UID NEWUID.

       -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions
              extract information about file permissions (default for superuser)

       --same-owner
              Try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default  for
              superuser).

       -s, --preserve-order, --same-order
              Sort names to extract to match archive

       --sort=ORDER
              When  creating  an archive, sort directory entries according to ORDER, which is one
              of none, name, or inode.

              The default is --sort=none, which stores archive  members  in  the  same  order  as
              returned by the operating system.

              Using --sort=name ensures the member ordering in the created archive is uniform and
              reproducible.

              Using --sort=inode reduces the number of disk seeks made when creating the  archive
              and  thus  can  considerably speed up archivation.  This sorting order is supported
              only if the underlying system provides the necessary information.

   Extended file attributes
       --acls Enable POSIX ACLs support.

       --no-acls
              Disable POSIX ACLs support.

       --selinux
              Enable SELinux context support.

       --no-selinux
              Disable SELinux context support.

       --xattrs
              Enable extended attributes support.

       --no-xattrs
              Disable extended attributes support.

       --xattrs-exclude=PATTERN
              Specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX regular expression,
              e.g. --xattrs-exclude='^user.', to exclude attributes from the user namespace.

       --xattrs-include=PATTERN
              Specify the include pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX regular expression.

   Device selection and switching
       -f, --file=ARCHIVE
              Use  archive  file  or device ARCHIVE.  If this option is not given, tar will first
              examine the environment variable `TAPE'.  If it is set, its value will be  used  as
              the archive name.  Otherwise, tar will assume the compiled-in default.  The default
              value can be inspected either using the --show-defaults option, or at  the  end  of
              the tar --help output.

              An  archive  name  that  has  a  colon in it specifies a file or device on a remote
              machine.  The part before the colon is taken as the machine name or IP address, and
              the part after it as the file or device pathname, e.g.:

              --file=remotehost:/dev/sr0

              An  optional  username  can  be  prefixed to the hostname, placing a @ sign between
              them.

              By default, the remote host is accessed via the rsh(1)  command.   Nowadays  it  is
              common  to  use ssh(1) instead.  You can do so by giving the following command line
              option:

              --rsh-command=/usr/bin/ssh

              The remote machine should have the rmt(8) command installed.  If its pathname  does
              not  match  tar's  default, you can inform tar about the correct pathname using the
              --rmt-command option.

       --force-local
              Archive file is local even if it has a colon.

       -F, --info-script=COMMAND, --new-volume-script=COMMAND
              Run COMMAND at the end  of  each  tape  (implies  -M).   The  command  can  include
              arguments.   When  started,  it  will  inherit tar's environment plus the following
              variables:

              TAR_VERSION
                     GNU tar version number.

              TAR_ARCHIVE
                     The name of the archive tar is processing.

              TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                     Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

              TAR_VOLUME
                     Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing  (set  if  reading  a  multi-
                     volume archive).

              TAR_FORMAT
                     Format  of  the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar,
                     v7.

              TAR_SUBCOMMAND
                     A short option (with  a  leading  dash)  describing  the  operation  tar  is
                     executing.

              TAR_FD File descriptor which can be used to communicate the new volume name to tar.

              If the info script fails, tar exits; otherwise, it begins writing the next volume.

       -L, --tape-length=N
              Change tape after writing Nx1024 bytes.  If N is followed by a size suffix (see the
              subsection Size suffixes below), the suffix specifies the multiplicative factor  to
              be used instead of 1024.

              This option implies -M.

       -M, --multi-volume
              Create/list/extract multi-volume archive.

       --rmt-command=COMMAND
              Use  COMMAND instead of rmt when accessing remote archives.  See the description of
              the -f option, above.

       --rsh-command=COMMAND
              Use COMMAND instead of rsh when accessing remote archives.  See the description  of
              the -f option, above.

       --volno-file=FILE
              When this option is used in conjunction with --multi-volume, tar will keep track of
              which volume of a multi-volume archive it is working in FILE.

   Device blocking
       -b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS
              Set record size to BLOCKSx512 bytes.

       -B, --read-full-records
              When listing or extracting,  accept  incomplete  input  records  after  end-of-file
              marker.

       -i, --ignore-zeros
              Ignore  zeroed  blocks in archive.  Normally two consecutive 512-blocks filled with
              zeroes mean EOF and  tar  stops  reading  after  encountering  them.   This  option
              instructs  it  to read further and is useful when reading archives created with the
              -A option.

       --record-size=NUMBER
              Set record size.  NUMBER is the number of bytes per record.  It must be multiple of
              512.   It  can  can  be suffixed with a size suffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10
              Kilobytes.  See the subsection Size suffixes, for a list of valid suffixes.

   Archive format selection
       -H, --format=FORMAT
              Create archive of the given format.  Valid formats are:

              gnu    GNU tar 1.13.x format

              oldgnu GNU format as per tar <= 1.12.

              pax, posix
                     POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format.

              ustar  POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format.

              v7     Old V7 tar format.

       --old-archive, --portability
              Same as --format=v7.

       --pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
              Control pax  keywords  when  creating  PAX  archives  (-H  pax).   This  option  is
              equivalent to the -o option of the pax(1) utility.

       --posix
              Same as --format=posix.

       -V, --label=TEXT
              Create  archive  with  volume  name  TEXT.  If listing or extracting, use TEXT as a
              globbing pattern for volume name.

   Compression options
       -a, --auto-compress
              Use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

       -I, --use-compress-program=COMMAND
              Filter data through COMMAND.  It must accept the -d option, for decompression.  The
              argument can contain command line options.

       -j, --bzip2
              Filter the archive through bzip2(1).

       -J, --xz
              Filter the archive through xz(1).

       --lzip Filter the archive through lzip(1).

       --lzma Filter the archive through lzma(1).

       --lzop Filter the archive through lzop(1).

       --no-auto-compress
              Do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

       -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
              Filter the archive through gzip(1).

       -Z, --compress, --uncompress
              Filter the archive through compress(1).

       --zstd Filter the archive through zstd(1).

   Local file selection
       --add-file=FILE
              Add FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash).

       --backup[=CONTROL]
              Backup  before  removal.   The  CONTROL  argument, if supplied, controls the backup
              policy.  Its valid values are:

              none, off
                     Never make backups.

              t, numbered
                     Make numbered backups.

              nil, existing
                     Make numbered backups if numbered backups exist, simple backups otherwise.

              never, simple
                     Always make simple backups

              If CONTROL is not given, the value is taken from  the  VERSION_CONTROL  environment
              variable.  If it is not set, existing is assumed.

       -C, --directory=DIR
              Change  to  DIR  before performing any operations.  This option is order-sensitive,
              i.e. it affects all options that follow.

       --exclude=PATTERN
              Exclude files matching PATTERN, a glob(3)-style wildcard pattern.

       --exclude-backups
              Exclude backup and lock files.

       --exclude-caches
              Exclude contents of directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG, except  for  the  tag
              file itself.

       --exclude-caches-all
              Exclude directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG and the file itself.

       --exclude-caches-under
              Exclude everything under directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG

       --exclude-ignore=FILE
              Before  dumping  a  directory,  see  if  it  contains  FILE.  If so, read exclusion
              patterns from this file.  The patterns affect only the directory itself.

       --exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE
              Same as --exclude-ignore, except that patterns from FILE affect both the  directory
              and all its subdirectories.

       --exclude-tag=FILE
              Exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except for FILE itself.

       --exclude-tag-all=FILE
              Exclude directories containing FILE.

       --exclude-tag-under=FILE
              Exclude everything under directories containing FILE.

       --exclude-vcs
              Exclude version control system directories.

       --exclude-vcs-ignores
              Exclude  files  that match patterns read from VCS-specific ignore files.  Supported
              files are: .cvsignore, .gitignore, .bzrignore, and .hgignore.

       -h, --dereference
              Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to.

       --hard-dereference
              Follow hard links; archive and dump the files they refer to.

       -K, --starting-file=MEMBER
              Begin at the given member in the archive.

       --newer-mtime=DATE
              Work on files whose data changed after the DATE.  If DATE starts with / or . it  is
              taken to be a file name; the mtime of that file is used as the date.

       --no-null
              Disable the effect of the previous --null option.

       --no-recursion
              Avoid descending automatically in directories.

       --no-unquote
              Do not unquote input file or member names.

       --no-verbatim-files-from
              Treat  each  line read from a file list as if it were supplied in the command line.
              I.e., leading and trailing whitespace is  removed  and,  if  the  resulting  string
              begins with a dash, it is treated as tar command line option.

              This is the default behavior.  The --no-verbatim-files-from option is provided as a
              way to restore it after --verbatim-files-from option.

              This option is positional: it affects all --files-from options that occur after  it
              in, until --verbatim-files-from option or end of line, whichever occurs first.

              It is implied by the --no-null option.

       --null Instruct  subsequent  -T  options  to read null-terminated names verbatim (disables
              special handling of names that start with a dash).

              See also --verbatim-files-from.

       -N, --newer=DATE, --after-date=DATE
              Only store files newer than DATE.  If DATE starts with / or . it is taken to  be  a
              file name; the mtime of that file is used as the date.

       --one-file-system
              Stay in local file system when creating archive.

       -P, --absolute-names
              Don't strip leading slashes from file names when creating archives.

       --recursion
              Recurse into directories (default).

       --suffix=STRING
              Backup  before  removal,  override  usual  suffix.   Default  suffix  is  ~, unless
              overridden by environment variable SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.

       -T, --files-from=FILE
              Get names to extract or create from FILE.

              Unless specified otherwise, the FILE must contain a  list  of  names  separated  by
              ASCII  LF  (i.e.  one  name  per line).  The names read are handled the same way as
              command line arguments.  They undergo quote removal and  word  splitting,  and  any
              string that starts with a - is handled as tar command line option.

              If   this   behavior   is   undesirable,   it   can   be   turned   off  using  the
              --verbatim-files-from option.

              The --null option instructs tar that the names in FILE are separated by  ASCII  NUL
              character, instead of LF.  It is useful if the list is generated by find(1) -print0
              predicate.

       --unquote
              Unquote file or member names (default).

       --verbatim-files-from
              Treat each line obtained from a file list as a file name, even if it starts with  a
              dash.   File  lists  are  supplied  with the --files-from (-T) option.  The default
              behavior is to handle names supplied in file lists as if they  were  typed  in  the
              command  line, i.e. any names starting with a dash are treated as tar options.  The
              --verbatim-files-from option disables this behavior.

              This option affects all --files-from options that occur after  it  in  the  command
              line.  Its effect is reverted by the --no-verbatim-files-from} option.

              This option is implied by the --null option.

              See also --add-file.

       -X, --exclude-from=FILE
              Exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE.

   File name transformations
       --strip-components=NUMBER
              Strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction.

       --transform=EXPRESSION, --xform=EXPRESSION
              Use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names.

   File name matching options
       These options affect both exclude and include patterns.

       --anchored
              Patterns match file name start.

       --ignore-case
              Ignore case.

       --no-anchored
              Patterns match after any / (default for exclusion).

       --no-ignore-case
              Case sensitive matching (default).

       --no-wildcards
              Verbatim string matching.

       --no-wildcards-match-slash
              Wildcards do not match /.

       --wildcards
              Use wildcards (default for exclusion).

       --wildcards-match-slash
              Wildcards match / (default for exclusion).

   Informative output
       --checkpoint[=N]
              Display progress messages every Nth record (default 10).

       --checkpoint-action=ACTION
              Run ACTION on each checkpoint.

       --clamp-mtime
              Only set time when the file is more recent than what was given with --mtime.

       --full-time
              Print file time to its full resolution.

       --index-file=FILE
              Send verbose output to FILE.

       -l, --check-links
              Print a message if not all links are dumped.

       --no-quote-chars=STRING
              Disable quoting for characters from STRING.

       --quote-chars=STRING
              Additionally quote characters from STRING.

       --quoting-style=STYLE
              Set  quoting  style for file and member names.  Valid values for STYLE are literal,
              shell, shell-always, c, c-maybe, escape, locale, clocale.

       -R, --block-number
              Show block number within archive with each message.

       --show-omitted-dirs
              When listing or  extracting,  list  each  directory  that  does  not  match  search
              criteria.

       --show-transformed-names, --show-stored-names
              Show file or archive names after transformation by --strip and --transform options.

       --totals[=SIGNAL]
              Print  total  bytes  after processing the archive.  If SIGNAL is given, print total
              bytes when this signal is delivered.  Allowed signals are: SIGHUP, SIGQUIT, SIGINT,
              SIGUSR1, and SIGUSR2.  The SIG prefix can be omitted.

       --utc  Print file modification times in UTC.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbosely  list  files processed.  Each instance of this option on the command line
              increases the verbosity level by one.  The maximum verbosity level  is  3.   For  a
              detailed  discussion  of  how  various verbosity levels affect tar's output, please
              refer to GNU Tar Manual, subsection 2.5.1 "The --verbose Option".

       --warning=KEYWORD
              Enable or disable  warning  messages  identified  by  KEYWORD.   The  messages  are
              suppressed if KEYWORD is prefixed with no- and enabled otherwise.

              Multiple --warning messages accumulate.

              Keywords controlling general tar operation:

              all    Enable all warning messages.  This is the default.

              none   Disable all warning messages.

              filename-with-nuls
                     "%s: file name read contains nul character"

              alone-zero-block
                     "A lone zero block at %s"

              Keywords applicable for tar --create:

              cachedir
                     "%s: contains a cache directory tag %s; %s"

              file-shrank
                     "%s: File shrank by %s bytes; padding with zeros"

              xdev   "%s: file is on a different filesystem; not dumped"

              file-ignored
                     "%s: Unknown file type; file ignored"
                     "%s: socket ignored"
                     "%s: door ignored"

              file-unchanged
                     "%s: file is unchanged; not dumped"

              ignore-archive
                     "%s: file is the archive; not dumped"

              file-removed
                     "%s: File removed before we read it"

              file-changed
                     "%s: file changed as we read it"

              failed-read
                     Suppresses  warnings  about  unreadable  files  or directories. This keyword
                     applies only if used together with the --ignore-failed-read option.

              Keywords applicable for tar --extract:

              existing-file
                     "%s: skipping existing file"

              timestamp
                     "%s: implausibly old time stamp %s"
                     "%s: time stamp %s is %s s in the future"

              contiguous-cast
                     "Extracting contiguous files as regular files"

              symlink-cast
                     "Attempting extraction of symbolic links as hard links"

              unknown-cast
                     "%s: Unknown file type '%c', extracted as normal file"

              ignore-newer
                     "Current %s is newer or same age"

              unknown-keyword
                     "Ignoring unknown extended header keyword '%s'"

              decompress-program
                     Controls verbose description  of  failures  occurring  when  trying  to  run
                     alternative  decompressor  programs.   This  warning  is disabled by default
                     (unless --verbose is used).  A common example of what you can get when using
                     this warning is:

                     $ tar --warning=decompress-program -x -f archive.Z
                     tar (child): cannot run compress: No such file or directory
                     tar (child): trying gzip

                     This means that tar first tried to decompress archive.Z using compress, and,
                     when that failed, switched to gzip.

              record-size
                     "Record size = %lu blocks"

              Keywords controlling incremental extraction:

              rename-directory
                     "%s: Directory has been renamed from %s"
                     "%s: Directory has been renamed"

              new-directory
                     "%s: Directory is new"

              xdev   "%s: directory is on a different device: not purging"

              bad-dumpdir
                     "Malformed dumpdir: 'X' never used"

       -w, --interactive, --confirmation
              Ask for confirmation for every action.

   Compatibility options
       -o     When creating, same as --old-archive.  When extracting, same as --no-same-owner.

   Size suffixes
               Suffix    Units                   Byte Equivalent
               b         Blocks                  SIZE x 512
               B         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               c         Bytes                   SIZE
               G         Gigabytes               SIZE x 1024^3
               K         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               k         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               M         Megabytes               SIZE x 1024^2
               P         Petabytes               SIZE x 1024^5
               T         Terabytes               SIZE x 1024^4
               w         Words                   SIZE x 2

RETURN VALUE

       Tar exit code indicates  whether  it  was  able  to  successfully  perform  the  requested
       operation, and if not, what kind of error occurred.

       0      Successful termination.

       1      Some files differ.  If tar was invoked with the --compare (--diff, -d) command line
              option, this  means  that  some  files  in  the  archive  differ  from  their  disk
              counterparts.   If tar was given one of the --create, --append or --update options,
              this exit code means that some files were changed while being archived and  so  the
              resulting archive does not contain the exact copy of the file set.

       2      Fatal error.  This means that some fatal, unrecoverable error occurred.

       If  a  subprocess that had been invoked by tar exited with a nonzero exit code, tar itself
       exits with that code as well.  This can happen, for example, if a compression option (e.g.
       -z)  was  used and the external compressor program failed.  Another example is rmt failure
       during backup to a remote device.

SEE ALSO

       bzip2(1), compress(1), gzip(1), lzma(1), lzop(1), rmt(8), symlink(7), xz(1), zstd(1).

       Complete tar manual: run info tar or use emacs(1) info mode to read it.

       Online copies of GNU tar documentation in various formats can be found at:

           http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

BUG REPORTS

       Report bugs to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2013-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO  WARRANTY,
       to the extent permitted by law.