- Basic Tar Operations
- Creating Archives
- Extracting Archives
- Listing Archives
- Compression Options
- File Operations
- Wildcards and Patterns
- Permissions and Ownership
- Incremental Backups
- Exclude and Include
- Remote Operations
- Verification
- Split and Combine
- Tools and Utilities
- Troubleshooting
Create a new tar archive.
tar -cvf archive.tar file1.txt file2.txt
Create an archive of a directory.
tar -cvf backup.tar /path/to/directory
Create archive with all files in current directory.
tar -cvf archive.tar *
Create archive showing progress.
tar -cvf archive.tar files/ -v
Create archive without compression.
tar -cvf backup.tar.gz files/ -G
Verbose mode showing file names.
tar -tvf archive.tar
Extract from standard input.
tar -xf - < archive.tar
Create to standard output.
tar -cf - files/ > archive.tar
Show version information.
tar --version
Show help.
tar --help
Create archive named backup.tar.
tar -cf backup.tar documents/
Create archive in current directory.
tar -cf ./backup.tar ./
Create archive with absolute paths.
tar -cvf backup.tar -C /home username/
Create archive preserving paths.
tar -cvf backup.tar /home/user/documents
Create archive from multiple directories.
tar -cvf backup.tar dir1/ dir2/ dir3/
Create archive from specific files by list.
tar -cvf backup.tar -T filelist.txt
Create empty archive.
tar -cf empty.tar -T /dev/null
Create archive without parent directory.
tar -cvf backup.tar -C /home/user .
Create archive with numbered backup.
tar -cvf backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar files/
Create archive excluding parent folder.
cd /source/dir && tar -cvf ../backup.tar .
Create archive with hidden files.
tar -cvf backup.tar .[!.]* *
Create archive from home directory.
tar -cvf backup.tar ~/
Create archive excluding cache.
tar --exclude='*.cache' -cvf backup.tar files/
Create archive excluding git folder.
tar --exclude='.git' -cvf backup.tar project/
Create archive exclude multiple patterns.
tar --exclude='*.log' --exclude='*.tmp' -cvf backup.tar files/
Create archive of logs directory.
tar -cvf logs_backup.tar /var/log/
Create archive of config files.
tar -cvf config.tar /etc/*.conf
Create archive from symbolic links.
tar -cvfh backup.tar links/
Create archive preserving permissions.
tar -cvpMf backup.tar -C / source/
Create archive from network share.
tar -cvf backup.tar //network/share/folder
Create archive in tmp directory.
tar -cvf /tmp/backup.tar files/
Create archive on external drive.
tar -cvf /media/usb/backup.tar /home/user/docs
Create archive with timestamp in name.
tar -cvf backup_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).tar files/
Create archive with full path.
tar -cvf /backup/$(hostname)_backup.tar /home/user
Create archive in chunks.
tar -cvL 100M -f backup.tar.partaa files/
Create archive with progress bar.
tar -czvf backup.tar.gz files/ --checkpoint=100
Extract all files from archive.
tar -xf archive.tar
Extract to specific directory.
tar -xf archive.tar -C /destination
Extract to current directory.
tar -xf archive.tar .
Extract with verbose output.
tar -xvf archive.tar
Extract preserving permissions.
tar -xpf archive.tar
Extract preserving timestamps.
tar -xpf archive.tar -m
Extract specific file.
tar -xf archive.tar filename.txt
Extract specific directory.
tar -xf archive.tar foldername/
Extract multiple files by pattern.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.txt"
Extract to different name.
tar -xf archive.tar -s '/original/newname/'
Extract only newer files.
tar -xf archive.tar -k
Extract without overwriting.
tar -xf archive.tar -K
Extract only if newer.
tar -xf archive.tar --overwrite-dir
Extract with strip components.
tar -xf archive.tar --strip-components=1
Extract from gzipped archive.
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz
Extract from bzip2 archive.
tar -xjf archive.tar.bz2
Extract from xz archive.
tar -xJf archive.tar.xz
Extract from stdin.
cat archive.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
Extract all archives in directory.
for f in *.tar.gz; do tar -xzf "$f"; done
Extract ignoring errors.
tar -xf archive.tar --ignore-unknown
Extract preserving ownership.
tar -xpf archive.tar --owner=0 --group=0
Extract without creating parent dirs.
tar -xpf archive.tar --no-recursion
Extract skip pre-extraction check.
tar -xf archive.tar --no-check-device
Extract and rename using script.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/^old/new/'
Extract overwrite existing files.
tar -xf archive.tar -o
Extract only first archive in file.
tar -xf multi.tar
Extract symbolic links as files.
tar -xhf archive.tar
Extract with numeric owner.
tar -xpf archive.tar -numeric-owner
List all files in archive.
tar -tf archive.tar
List with details.
tar -tvf archive.tar
List format with sizes.
tar -tvf archive.tar | awk '{print $3, $6}'
List only specific directory.
tar -tf archive.tar "folder/*"
List with numbered lines.
tar -tf archive.tar | nl
List count of files.
tar -tf archive.tar | wc -l
List matching pattern.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep ".txt"
List without directories.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep -v '/$'
List show file sizes.
tar -tvf archive.tar | awk '{print $5}' | numfmt --to=iec
List show modification time.
tar -tvf archive.tar | awk '{print $6, $7, $8}'
List format like ls -l.
tar -tvf archive.tar
List compressed archive.
tar -tzf archive.tar.gz
List sort by size.
tar -tvf archive.tar | sort -k5 -n
List sort by name.
tar -tf archive.tar | sort
List only directories.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep '/$'
List only files.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep -v '/$'
List unique file types.
tar -tf archive.tar | sed 's/.*\.//' | sort -u
List files sorted.
tar -tf archive.tar | sort | uniq
List in reverse order.
tar -tf archive.tar | tac
List with paths quoted.
tar -tf archive.tar -Q
List archive index.
tar -tf archive.tar --index-file=index.txt
List specific file info.
tar -tvf archive.tar filename
List show compression type.
file backup.tar.gz
Create gzip compressed archive.
tar -czvf backup.tar.gz files/
Create bzip2 compressed archive.
tar -cjvf backup.tar.bz2 files/
Create xz compressed archive.
tar -cJvf backup.tar.xz files/
Create lzip compressed archive.
tar -cvf backup.tar.lzip --lzip files/
Create lz4 compressed archive.
tar -cvf backup.tar.lz4 --lz4 files/
Create lzma compressed archive.
tar -cvf backup.tar.lzma --lzma files/
Create with compression level 9.
tar -czvf -9 backup.tar.gz files/
Create with compression level 1.
tar -czvf -1 backup.tar.gz files/
Create using gzip directly.
tar -cvf - files/ | gzip > backup.tar.gz
Create using pbzip2.
tar -cvf - files/ | pbzip2 > backup.tar.bz2
Create using pigz.
tar -cvf - files/ | pigz > backup.tar.gz
Create using pxz.
tar -cvf - files/ | pxz > backup.tar.xz
Auto-detect compression.
tar -cvf archive.tar.gz files/
Compression speed test gzip.
time tar -cvf - files/ | gzip > backup.tar.gz
Compression speed test bzip2.
time tar -cvf - files/ | bzip2 > backup.tar.bz2
Compression compare sizes.
tar -czvf backup.tar.gz files/ && ls -lh backup.tar.gz
Decompress with gunzip.
gunzip -c backup.tar.gz | tar -cvf -
Decompress with bunzip2.
bunzip2 -c backup.tar.bz2 | tar -cvf -
Decompress with xz.
xz -d -c backup.tar.xz | tar -cvf -
Extract gzipped archive.
tar -ixvf archive.tar.gz
Force compression format.
tar -a -cvf backup.tar.gz files/
Don't auto-detect compression.
tar -no-auto-compress -cvf backup.tar files/
Show compression info.
tar -tvzf backup.tar.gz
Use compress program.
gzip -d < backup.tar.gz | tar -tvf -
Extract compressed archive.
tar -I lbzip2 -xvf backup.tar.bz2
Use compress exclude.
tar -cvf - files/ | compress -c > backup.tar.Z
Use lzop compression.
tar -cvf - files/ | lzop > backup.tar.lzo
Test archive compression.
tar -czf test.tar.gz files/ && gzip -t test.tar.gz
Add file to archive.
tar -rvf archive.tar newfile.txt
Add multiple files.
tar -rvf archive.tar file1.txt file2.txt
Add directory to archive.
tar -rvf archive.tar newdir/
Add files matching pattern.
tar -rvf archive.tar "*.log"
Update existing files only.
tar -uvf archive.tar files/
Delete file from archive.
tar --delete -f archive.tar filename.txt
Delete files by pattern.
tar --delete -f archive.tar "*.tmp"
Remove after extraction.
tar -xvf archive.tar --remove-files
Move within archive.
tar --delete -f archive.tar old.txt | tar -cvf archive.tar -T -
Rename in archive.
tar --rename -vvf archive.tar oldname newname
Rename multiple files.
tar --rename -vf archive.tar 's/^/prefix_/'
Extract and remove archive.
tar -xvf archive.tar --remove-files
Synchronize archive.
tar -cvf archive.tar --files-list=<(find . -type f)
List new files to add.
find . -newer backup.tar -print | tar -cvf backup.tar -T -
Deduplicate files.
tar --delete -f archive.tar $(tar -tf archive.tar | sort | uniq -d)
Change file permissions.
tar -xvf archive.tar --to-command='chmod 644 "$TAR_FILENAME"'
List new or changed files.
tardiff -backup.tar newer_file
Create archive with hardlinks preserved.
tar -cvfh archive.tar directory/
Extract and execute.
tar -xvf archive.tar -C / --to-command='bash'
Convert absolute to relative.
tar -xvf archive.tar --strip-components=2
Apply patch from archive.
tar -xf patch.tar '<patch>' | patch -p1
Verify file in archive.
tar -tf archive.tar filename && echo "Found"
Check file integrity.
tar -tf archive.tar > /dev/null && echo "OK"
Extract to stdout.
tar -Of archive.tar filename > output.txt
Compare archive contents.
tar -dvf archive.tar
List differences.
tar -Wvf archive.tar
Update archive.
tar -uvf archive.tar files/
Append archives.
tar -Af archive1.tar archive2.tar
Concatenate archives.
tar -cf combined.tar -M file1.tar -M file2.tar
Extract all .txt files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.txt"
Extract all .log files.
tar -xf archive.tar --wildcards "*.log"
Extract php files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.php"
Extract all .jpg images.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.jpg"
Extract all .pdf documents.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.pdf"
Extract .sh scripts.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.sh"
Extract .conf files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.conf"
Extract .json files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.json"
Extract .xml files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.xml"
Extract .html files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.html"
Extract .css files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.css"
Extract .js files.
tar -xf archive.tar "*.js"
Extract files in docs folder.
tar -xf archive.tar "docs/*"
Extract files in subfolder.
tar -xf archive.tar "*/data.txt"
Extract in specific path.
tar -xf archive.tar "subdir/*.txt"
Extract using glob pattern.
tar -xf archive.tar --glob '*.{txt,log}'
Extract multiple patterns.
tar -xf archive.tar -T filelist.txt
List matching pattern.
tar -tf archive.tar --wildcards "*.txt"
List all text files.
tar -tf archive.tar --wildcards "*.{txt,doc,pdf}"
Find in archive.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep -i 'error'
Add matching files.
tar -cvf archive.tar --wildcards '*.txt'
Exclude pattern.
tar -cvf archive.tar --exclude='*.log' files/
Exclude directory.
tar -cvf archive.tar --exclude='.git' project/
Exclude multiple patterns.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='{.tmp,.cache}' files/
Exclude by size.
tar -cvf archive.tar --exclude='*.{o,so,class}'
Use regex exclude.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude-regex='^.*\.log$' files/
List using grep.
tar -xf archive.tar | grep 'pattern'
Find new files.
find . -name "*.new" | tar -cvf backup.tar -T -
Archive only changed.
tar -cvf backup.tar -N backup.tar files/
Archive newer than date.
tar -cvf backup.tar -N "2024-01-01" files/
Archive after date.
tar -cvf backup.tar --after-date="2024-01-01" files/
List modified after date.
tar -tf archive.tar --newer="2024-01-01"
Extract from archive newer.
tar -xf archive.tar --newer-mtime="2024-01-01"
Extract modified after.
tar -xf archive.tar --newer-than=file.txt
Extract preserving permissions.
tar -xpf archive.tar
Extract as root with owner.
tar -xpf archive.tar --same-owner
Preserve permissions.
tar -cvf archive.tar -p files/
Use numeric owner.
tar -xpf archive.tar -numeric-owner
Ignore permission errors.
tar -xpf archive.tar --unlink
Set default permissions.
umask 077 && tar -cvf archive.tar files/
Show permission errors.
tar -xvf archive.tar --posix 2>&1
Check permissions.
tar -tvf archive.tar | head -5
Preserve access times.
tar -cvf archive.tar -p --atime-preserve files/
Preserve device files.
tar -cvf archive.tar --preserve -H files/
Preserve all attributes.
tar -cvf archive.tar -p -a files/
Extract read-only as root.
tar -xpf archive.tar --mode=o=r
Preserve SELinux.
tar -cvf archive.tar --selinux files/
Preserve ACLs.
tar -cvf archive.tar --acls files/
Preserve xattrs.
tar -cvf archive.tar --xattrs files/
Preserve all.
tar -cvf archive.tar -p -a --numeric-owner files/
Ignore owner mismatch.
tar -xf archive.tar -o
Save owner info.
tar -cvf archive.tar --numeric-owner files/
Restore owner.
tar -xpf archive.tar -o --no-same-owner
Set owner.
tar -xf archive.tar --owner=username
Set group.
tar -xf archive.tar --group=groupname
Chmod extracted files.
tar -xf archive.tar --to-command='chmod 644 $TAR_FILE'
Chown extracted.
tar -xf archive.tar --to-command='chown user:group $TAR_FILE'
Set timestamp.
tar -xf archive.tar --touch
Ignore time.
tar -xf archive.tar -m
Preserve modification time.
tar -xvf archive.tar --preserve-modification-time
Create full backup.
tar -cvf full_backup.tar /home/user
Create incremental backup.
tar -cvf inc_backup.tar -N full_backup.tar /home/user
Backup changed files.
tar -cvf new_backup.tar -N last_backup.tar files/
Backup newer than file.
tar -cvf backup.tar -N marker_file files/
Backup after date.
tar -cvf backup.tar --after-date="2024-01-01" files/
Backup newer modified.
tar -cvf backup.tar --newer-mtime file.txt files/
List newer files.
tar -tf backup.tar --newer-than=file.txt
Restore incremental.
tar --incremental -xvf backup.tar
Create snapshot.
tar -cvf snapshot.snap .
Backup with snapshot.
tar -cvf backup.tar -g snapshot.snap files/
Diff backup.
tar -dvf backup1.tar backup2.tar
Merge archives.
tar -cvf merged.tar -M backup1.tar -M backup2.tar
Generate file list.
find . -type f -newer backup.tar > filelist.txt
Create from filelist.
tar -cvf backup.tar -T filelist.txt
Backup with tarfile module.
python3 -m tarfile -c backup.tar files/
Extract tarfile.
python3 -m tarfile -e backup.tar destination/
List tarfile.
python3 -m tarfile -l backup.tar
Check tarfile.
python3 -m tarfile -c backup.tar --check
Create diff backup.
tar -cvf old.tar && touch marker && tar -cvf new.tar --compare files/
Script backup.
#!/bin/bash
BACKUP="backup_$(date +%F).tar"
tar -cvf $BACKUP files/ && ls -lh $BACKUP
Backup rotation script.
#!/bin/bash
for i in 4 3 2 1; do [ -f "day$i.tar" ] && mv "day$i.tar" "day$((i+1)).tar"; done
tar -cvf day1.tar files/
Auto backup.
0 2 * * * tar -cvf /backup/$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).tar /home/user
Incremental restore.
for f in $(ls -1 day*.tar); do tar -xvf "$f"; done
Exclude all .log files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='*.log' files/
Exclude .tmp files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='*.tmp' files/
Exclude .cache directory.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='.cache' files/
Exclude .git folder.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='.git' project/
Exclude node_modules.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='node_modules' project/
Exclude pycache.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='__pycache__' files/
Exclude hidden files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='.*' files/
Exclude system files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='/proc' --exclude='/sys' --exclude='/dev' /
Only include .txt files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --include='*.txt' --include='*.md' files/
Only include source files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --include='*.c' --include='*.h' src/
Include specific directory.
tar -cvf backup.tar --include='logs/*' app/
Exclude then include.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude='*.tmp' --include='important.tmp' files/
Exclude multiple types.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude={*.log,*.tmp,*.cache} files/
Exclude pattern list.
tar -cvf backup.tar -X exclude.txt files/
Create exclude file.
echo "*.log" > exclude.txt
echo "*.tmp" >> exclude.txt
tar -cvf backup.tar -X exclude.txt files/
Exclude from file.
tar -cvf backup.tar --exclude-from=exclude.txt files/
Include only directories.
tar -cvf backup.tar --include='*/' --include='*.c' --exclude='*' files/
Include some files.
tar -cvf backup.tar -T include.txt files/
Filter archive.
tar -cvf backup.tar --posix --exclude='*.o' files/
No exclusion.
tar -cvf backup.tar --no-auto-exclude files/
Force exclude.
tar -cvf backup.tar --ignore-failed-read files/
Skip denied files.
tar -cvf backup.tar --no-ignore-recursive files/
Ignore archive errors.
tar -xvf archive.tar --ignore-zeros
Skip filesystem errors.
tar -xf archive.tar --ignore-failed-read
Skip permission errors.
tar -xf archive.tar --skip-old-files
Don't restore ownership.
tar -xf archive.tar --no-same-owner --no-same-permissions
Skip based on size.
tar -xf archive.tar --preserve -s /dev/null
Create archive on remote server.
ssh user@server "tar -cf - files/" > backup.tar
Extract archive on remote.
ssh user@server "tar -xf - -C /destination" < backup.tar
Copy via tar ssh.
tar -cvf - files/ | ssh user@server "tar -xvf - -C /destination"
Compress send to remote.
tar -czvf - files/ | ssh user@server "cat > backup.tar.gz"
Receive decompress from remote.
ssh user@server "tar -czvf - files/" | tar -xzvf -
Sync to remote.
tar -cvf - files/ | ssh user@server "tar -xvf - -C /destination"
Remote backup.
ssh user@backup-server "tar -czvf - /home" > backup.tar.gz
Remote restore.
ssh user@backup-server "tar -czf - /home" | tar -xzvf -
Copy with progress.
tar -cvf - files/ | pv | ssh user@server "tar -xf - -C /dest"
Backup to remote.
tar -cvf - files/ | gzip | ssh user@server "gunzip > backup.tar.gz"
Migrate system.
tar -cvf - --one-file-system / | ssh user@newserver "tar -xvf - -C /"
Pipe through ssh.
tar -cf - files/ | ssh -C user@server "cat > backup.tar"
Netcat backup.
tar -cvf - files/ | nc -q0 server 9000
Receive tar backup.
nc -l -p 9000 | tar -xvf -
SSH tar pipe.
tar -cvf - files/ | ssh -C user@host "tar -xvf - -C /dest"
Rync with tar.
tar -cvf - files/ | rsync --progress -avz user@server:/dest/-
Remote sync.
rsync -avz --progress directory/ user@server:/backup/
SFTP upload.
sftp user@server
sftp> put backup.tar /backup/
sftp> bye
Scp upload.
scp backup.tar user@server:/backup/
Rsync incremental.
rsync -avz --link-dest=prev_backup backup/ user@server:/backup/
Verify archive integrity.
tar -tf archive.tar > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "OK"
Test archive.
tar -tzf archive.tar.gz
Check compressed archive.
gzip -t archive.tar.gz
Check all files.
tar -tf archive.tar | while read f; do [ -e "$f" ] || echo "Missing: $f"; done
Compare archive contents.
tar -dvf archive1.tar archive2.tar
Test extraction without.
tar -tf archive.tar
Verify extraction.
tar -xvf archive.tar -C /tmp --dry-run
Check signatures.
gpg --verify backup.tar.gz.sig backup.tar.gz
Calculate checksum.
md5sum backup.tar.gz
Verify checksum.
md5sum -c checksums.md5
Generate sha256.
sha256sum backup.tar.gz > checksums.sha256
Verify sha256.
sha256sum -c checksums.sha256
List differences.
tar -Wvf archive.tar
Check file by file.
tar -tf archive.tar | wc -l
Verify tar file.
tar -tvf archive.tar | head -10
Test with verbose.
tar -tvfz archive.tar.gz
Verify bzip2 integrity.
bzip2 -t archive.tar.bz2
Verify xz integrity.
xz -t archive.tar.xz
Test lzip.
lzip -t archive.tar.lz
Test all archives.
for f in *.tar*; do tar -tf "$f" > /dev/null && echo "$f OK"; done
Check corrupted archive.
tar -xf archive.tar -O > /dev/null 2>&1
Extract test.
tar -xf archive.tar -C /tmp/test --dry-run
Check format.
file archive.tar
Show tar type.
tar -tvf archive.tar | head -1
Verify in-place.
tar -cMf archive.tar files/ 2>&1
Split archive into parts.
split -b 100M backup.tar.gz backup_part_
Combine parts.
cat backup_part_* > backup.tar.gz
Split using dd.
dd if=backup.tar.gz bs=1M count=100 part
Split with size limit.
tar -cvL 100M -f backup.partaa files/
Show split files.
ls -lh backup_part_*
Recombine all parts.
cat backup_part_a* > original.tar.gz
Split with suffix.
split -d -a 2 -b 100M backup.tar.gz backup.
Numbered parts.
split -d -b 100M backup.tar.gz backup. --additional-suffix=.tar.gz
Multi-volume extract.
tar -M -f vol1.tar -f vol2.tar -f vol3.tar
Create multi-volume.
tar -cvM -f 1.tar -f 2.tar -f 3.tar files/
Continue multi-volume.
tar -Mv -f 1.tar -f 2.tar
Volume size.
tar -cvM -L 100m -f backup.tar files/
Auto volume.
tar -cvM -f backup.tar files/
Extract volume.
tar -xf vol1.tar -M
Split archive.
tar -czvf - files/ | split -b 100M - backup.tar.gz
Join split files.
cat backup.tar.gz* | tar -xzvf -
Volume info.
tar -tvf vol1.tar | tail -5
List all volumes.
ls -1 vol*.tar
Combine many archives.
tar -cvf combined.tar file1.tar file2.tar file3.tar
Merge archives.
tar -Af combined.tar part1.tar part2.tar
Concatenate archives.
tar -cvf new.tar -M backup1.tar -M backup2.tar
Extract large archive.
tar -xvf large.tar --tape-length=1024
Continue extraction.
tar -xvf large.tar -M
View using vim.
vim backup.tar
Edit using vim.
vim backup.tar
List with less.
tar -tf archive.tar | less
Search with grep.
tar -tf archive.tar | grep 'pattern'
Count files.
tar -tf archive.tar | wc -l
Sort files.
tar -tf archive.tar | sort
Unique files.
tar -tf archive.tar | sort -u
List with tree.
tar -tf archive.tar | tree -L 2
View with find.
tar -tf archive.tar | find . -name '*pattern*'
Use awk.
tar -tvf archive.tar | awk '{print $6}'
Convert to csv.
tar -tvf archive.tar | awk '{print $1,$6}' OFS=',' > files.csv
Generate manifest.
tar -tf archive.tar | sort > manifest.txt
Check manifest.
diff <(tar -tf new.tar | sort) manifest.txt
Extract file list.
tar -tf archive.tar > filelist.txt
Use cut.
tar -tvf archive.tar | cut -d' ' -f6
Sed replace.
tar -tf archive.tar | sed 's/old/new/'
Use xargs.
tar -tf archive.tar | xargs -I {} echo {}
Archive from find.
find . -type f -name "*.txt" -print0 | tar -cvf archive.tar --null -T -
Archive modified.
find . -newer backup.tar -print0 | tar -cvf backup.tar --null -T -
Backup with rsync.
rsync -av --delete backup/ /destination/
Diff backup.
diff -rq backup1 backup2
Compare archives.
tar -dvf archive1.tar archive2.tar
Sync directories.
cd dir1 && tar -cf - . | (cd ../dir2 && tar -xvf -)
Copy directory.
tar -cf - dir/ | tar -xf - -C /destination
Mirror directory.
tar -cvf - . | (cd /dest && tar -xvf -)
Backup with timestamp.
tar -cvzf "/backup/$(date +\%Y\%m\%d_\%H\%M\%S).tar.gz" .
Cron backup.
0 3 * * * tar -cvzf /backups/backup.tar.gz /home/user
Auto delete old.
find /backup -mtime +30 -delete
Rotate backups.
for f in $(seq 7 -1 1); do mv day_$f.tar day_$((f+1)).tar; done
mv today.tar day_1.tar
Cleanup archive.
tar -xf archive.tar --delete "*.tmp"
Deduplicate.
tar -xf archive.tar -s '/old/new/'
Filter archive.
tar -cf - files/ | grep -v '\.log$' | tar -cf new.tar -
Transform paths.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/^\///'
Prefix paths.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/^/prefix_/'
Suffix paths.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/$/.bak/'
Lowercase names.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/.*/\L&/'
Uppercase names.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/.*/\U&/'
Replace spaces.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/ /_/g'
Remove extension.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/\.[^.]*$//'
Add extension.
tar -xf archive.tar --transform='s/$/.txt/'
Get error details.
tar -xvf archive.tar -v 2>&1
Show all warnings.
tar -cvf archive.tar files/ -w
Ignore errors.
tar -xvf archive.tar -i
Skip bad blocks.
tar -xvf archive.tar -k
Continue on error.
tar -xvf archive.tar -C / --continue-on-error
Ignore unknown.
tar -xvf archive.tar --ignore-unknown
Show help.
tar --help | less
Show manual.
man tar
Show examples.
tar --help | grep -A 5 Example
Fix symbolic links.
tar -hxvf archive.tar
Fix hardlinks.
tar -xvf archive.tar -h
Unlink before extract.
tar -xvf archive.tar --unlink-first
Overwrite files.
tar -xvf archive.tar --overwrite
Don't overwrite.
tar -xvf archive.tar --no-overwrite
Skip existing.
tar -xvf archive.tar --skip-old-files
Keep newer.
tar -xvf archive.tar --keep-newer-files
Keep older.
tar -xvf archive.tar --keep-old-files
Preserve links.
tar -xvf archive.tar -h
Extract sparse files.
tar -xvf archive.tar --sparse
Ignore sizes.
tar -xvf archive.tar -s
Check free space.
df -h /destination
Check permissions.
ls -ld destination/
Check ownership.
ls -ln destination/
Check disk space.
du -sh destination/
Read error log.
tar -xvf archive.tar 2> error.log
Redirect errors.
tar -xvf archive.tar 2>&1 | tee log.txt
Verbose errors.
tar -tvf archive.tar -w 2>&1 | head -10
Debug mode.
tar -xvf archive.tar -v -v -v
Show tar options.
tar --show-options
Show defaults.
tar --show-defaults
List formats.
tar --list-formats
Check compression.
tar -tvf archive.tar
Verify tar version.
tar --version
Check gzip version.
gzip --version
Check bzip2 version.
bzip2 --version
Check xz version.
xz --version
Update tar.
apt update && apt install tar
Reinstall tar.
apt install --reinstall tar
Install tools.
apt install tar gzip bzip2 xz-utils
Install with contrib.
apt install tar contrib
Add to path.
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
Use absolute path.
/bin/tar -cvf archive.tar files/
Check library.
ldd /bin/tar
Check dependencies.
ldd /bin/tar | grep not
Strace tar.
strace -e trace=open,read tar -xvf archive.tar
Trace with filter.
strace -f tar -xvf archive.tar 2>&1 | grep -i error
Profile tar.
time tar -cvf archive.tar files/
Measure speed.
time tar -xvf archive.tar
Show processes.
ps aux | grep tar
Show open files.
lsof | grep tar
Check locks.
lsof | grep archive.tar
Show file descriptors.
ls /proc/$(pgrep tar)/fd
Monitor system.
top
Check dmesg.
dmesg | tail -20
Check syslog.
tail -f /var/log/syslog
Check messages.
tail -f /var/log/messages
Show kernel ring.
dmesg -T
Clear cache.
sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
Increase buffer.
tar -cvf archive.tar files/ --record-size=512
Use large records.
tar -cvf archive.tar files/ -- Blocking-size=10240
Read with buffer.
tar -xvf archive.tar --read-full-records
tar -cvf archive.tar files/
tar -xvf archive.tar
tar -tvf archive.tar
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz files/
tar -cjvf archive.tar.bz2 files/
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz
tar -rvf archive.tar newfile
tar --delete -f archive.tar file
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-c |
Create archive |
-x |
Extract archive |
-t |
List contents |
-v |
Verbose |
-f |
File name |
-z |
gzip compression |
-j |
bzip2 compression |
-J |
xz compression |
-p |
Preserve permissions |
-C |
Change directory |
-A |
Concatenate |
-d |
Diff |
-r |
Append |
-u |
Update |
-k |
Keep |
-M |
Multi-volume |
-N |
Newer than |
-exclude |
Exclude pattern |
--wildcards |
Use wildcards |
tar -cvzf /backup/home_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /home
tar -cvzf /backup/etc_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc
tar -cvpzf /backup/full_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/sys --exclude=/dev --exclude=/run --exclude=/tmp /
tar -cvzf /backup/incremental_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -N /backup/last.tar.gz /
tar -cvzf - /home | ssh user@server "cat > /backup/home.tar.gz"
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz path/to/file.txt
tar -xvf archive.tar -C /media/usb
tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz
find /home -mtime -7 | tar -cvzf backup.tar.gz -T -
tar -tzf backup.tar.gz > /dev/null && echo "OK"
tar -cvpf - / | ssh user@newserver "tar -xvpf - -C /"
Contact if you want to join our classes/support: EFXTV
