.Dd 2015-10-08 .Dt TAR 1 .Os sbase .Sh NAME .Nm tar .Nd create, list or extract a tape archive .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl C Ar dir .Op Fl J | Fl Z | Fl a | Fl j | Fl z .Fl x Op Fl m | Fl t .Op Fl f Ar file .Op Ar file ... .Nm .Op Fl C Ar dir .Op Fl J | Fl Z | Fl a | Fl j | Fl z .Op Fl h .Fl c Ar path ... .Op Fl f Ar file .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm is the standard file archiver. .Sh OPTIONS .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl c Ar path ... Create archive from .Ar path . .It Fl C Ar dir Change directory to .Ar dir before beginning. .It Fl f Ar file Set .Ar file as input | output archive instead of stdin | stdout. If '-', stdin | stdout is used. .It Fl m Do not preserve modification time. .It Fl t List all files in the archive. .It Fl x Extract archive. .It Fl h Always dereference symbolic links while recursively traversing directories. .It Fl J | Fl Z | Fl a | Fl j | Fl z Use xz | compress | lzma | bzip2 | gzip compression or decompression. These utilities must be installed separately. Using these flags is discouraged in favour of the flexibility and clarity of pipes: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ bzip2 -cd archive.tar.bz2 | tar -x $ gzip -cd archive.tar.gz | tar -x .Ed .Bd -literal -offset indent $ tar -c file ... | bzip2 > archive.tar.bz2 $ tar -c file ... | gzip2 > archive.tar.gz .Ed .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ar 1 , .Xr bzip2 1 , .Xr gzip 1 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm utility is compliant with the UStar (Uniform Standard Tape ARchive) format defined in the .St -p1003.1-88 specification.