MPE/iX Shell and Utilities Reference Manual, Vol 2
tar(1) MPE/iX Shell and Utilities tar(1)
NAME
tar — USTAR-compatible tape archiver to copy and back up files
SYNOPSIS
tar –c[#sbfvwlzU][–V volpat][tapefile][blocksize] file ...
tar –r[#sbfvwlzU][–V volpat][tapefile][blocksize] file ...
tar –t[#sbfvzU][–V volpat][tapefile][blocksize][file ...]
tar –u[#sbfvwlzU][–V volpat][tapefile][blocksize] file ...
tar –x[#sbfvwpmozU][–V volpat][tapefile][blocksize][file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Note: The
MPE/iX implementation of this utility does not function exactly as this man page de-
scribes. For details, see the MPE/iX NOTES section at the end of this man page.
tar manipulates archives. An archive is a single file which contains the complete contents of
a set of other files; an archive preserves the directory hierarchy that contained the original
files, in a manner similar to cpio. The name tar was derived from Tape ARchiver; however,
you can use archives with any medium, including diskettes.
This version of the tar utility writes and reads the original tar format from
UNIX systems as
well as the USTAR format defined by the POSIX
(IEEE P1003.1) standards group.
Options
The five forms of the command shown in the synopsis represent the main functions of tar as
follows:
–c creates an archive This command writes each named file into a newly-created ar-
chive. Directories recursively include all components. Under the
USTAR (–U) option,
tar records directories and other special files in the tape archive; otherwise, it ig-
nores such files. If – appears in place of any file name, tar reads the standard input
for a list of files one per line. This allows other commands to generate lists of files
for tar to archive.
–r writes the named files to the end of the archive. It is possible to have more than one
copy of a file in a tape archive using this method. To use this form of the command
with a tape, it must be possible to backspace the tape.
–t displays a table of contents. This displays the names of all the files in the archive,
one per line. If you specify one or more files on the command line, tar prints only
those file names. Under the verbose (–v) option, more information about each tape
archive member is printed, in a format similar to that produced by ls –l.
1-590 Commands and Utilities