Tech-Recipes - Latest Comments in Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

dan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:36:04 -0000

Thanks for saving my time with this posting.

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

Guest — Tue, 03 May 2005 20:45:47 -0000

How to tar a folder which contains list subfolders in unix.Please get back to me immediately<font color="red"></font>

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

qmchenry — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:39:25 -0000

Yeah, even with GNU tar, the hyphen is optional as indicated by the square brackets around the hyphen like [ - ] .. there are so many scripts and old timers like me around who user tar with the old hyphenless syntax that it would be miserable if it didn't work anymore.

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

coredump — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:00:04 -0000

NAME
tar - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility

SYNOPSIS
tar [ - ] A --catenate --concatenate | c --create | d --diff --compare | r --append | t --list | u
--update | x -extract --get [ --atime-preserve ] [ -b, --block-size N ] [ -B, --read-full-blocks ] [ -C,
--directory DIR ] [ --checkpoint ] [ -f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F ] [ --force-local ] [ -F, --info-script
F --new-volume-script F ] [ -G, --incremental ] [ -g, --listed-incremental F ] [ -h, --dereference ] [
-i, --ignore-zeros ] [ -j, -I, --bzip ] [ --ignore-failed-read ] [ -k, --keep-old-files ] [ -K, --start-
ing-file F ] [ -l, --one-file-system ] [ -L, --tape-length N ] [ -m, --modification-time ] [ -M, --multi-
volume ] [ -N, --after-date DATE, --newer DATE ] [ -o, --old-archive, --portability ] [ -O, --to-stdout ]
[ -p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions ] [ -P, --absolute-paths ] [ --preserve ] [ -R,
--record-number ] [ --remove-files ] [ -s, --same-order, --preserve-order ] [ --same-owner ] [ -S,
--sparse ] [ -T, --files-from=F ] [ --null ] [ --totals ] [ -v, --verbose ] [ -V, --label NAME ] [
--version ] [ -w, --interactive, --confirmation ] [ -W, --verify ] [ --exclude FILE ] [ -X,
--exclude-from FILE ] [ -Z, --compress, --uncompress ] [ -z, --gzip, --ungzip ] [ --use-compress-
program PROG ] [ --block-compress ] [ -[0-7][lmh] ]

filename1 [ filename2, ... filenameN ]

directory1 [ directory2, ...directoryN ]

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

qmchenry — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:42:10 -0000

It may look funny without it, but the hyphen is optional. The traditional syntax for tar does not use the hyphen for command line options that we've become used to using. Likewise, the GNU double hyphen options are a relatively new addition to UNIX.

For example, here is an excerpt from the Solaris 9 man page for tar:
tar c [ bBeEfFhiklnopPqvwX@ [0-7]] [block] [tarfile]
[exclude-file] {-I include-file | -C directory | file |
file} ...

I don't know when the hyphen options were implemented in tar, but I suspect that there are still versions of tar that would gag on a -cf. The hyphenless syntax should work everywhere.

Re: Create a TAR archive of a directory | UNIX | Tech-Recipes

grinch — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 09:20:22 -0000

The example should be tar -cf archive.tar * (note the hyphen)