Use tar to copy files from one directory to another

This post shows how to use tar to copy files from one directory to another.

cd ~
mkdir ~/tartest
cd ~/tartest

mkdir -p from/
mkdir -p from/path/sub/
touch from/path/sub/test.txt
mkdir -p from/path/sub/folder
touch from/path/sub/folder/test.txt

tar -C from/ -cvf test.tar path/sub/

# You should see:
# path/sub/
# path/sub/folder/
# path/sub/folder/test.txt
# path/sub/test.txt

tar -tf test.tar

# You should see:
# path/sub/
# path/sub/folder/
# path/sub/folder/test.txt
# path/sub/test.txt

mkdir -p to/
tar -C to/ -xvf test.tar

find to/

# You should see:
# to/
# to/path
# to/path/sub
# to/path/sub/folder
# to/path/sub/folder/test.txt
# to/path/sub/test.txt

cd ~
find tartest

# You should see:
# tartest
# tartest/to
# tartest/to/path
# tartest/to/path/sub
# tartest/to/path/sub/folder
# tartest/to/path/sub/folder/test.txt
# tartest/to/path/sub/test.txt
# tartest/test.tar
# tartest/from
# tartest/from/path
# tartest/from/path/sub
# tartest/from/path/sub/folder
# tartest/from/path/sub/folder/test.txt
# tartest/from/path/sub/test.txt

# Reset the test
cd ~
rm -rf ~/tartest

tar --version

tar (GNU tar) 1.28 Copyright (C) 2014 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.

Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.

**tar --help**

defaults in bold

Usage: tar [OPTION…] [FILE]… GNU ‘tar’ saves many files together into a single tape or disk archive, and can restore individual files from the archive.

Examples: tar -cf archive.tar foo bar # Create archive.tar from files foo and bar. tar -tvf archive.tar # List all files in archive.tar verbosely. tar -xf archive.tar # Extract all files from archive.tar.

Main operation mode:

-A, –catenate, –concatenate append tar files to an archive -c, –create create a new archive -d, –diff, –compare find differences between archive and file system –delete delete from the archive (not on mag tapes!) -r, –append append files to the end of an archive -t, –list list the contents of an archive –test-label test the archive volume label and exit -u, –update only append files newer than copy in archive -x, –extract, –get extract files from an archive

Operation modifiers:

–check-device ** check device numbers when creating incremental archives (default)**

-g, –listed-incremental=FILE handle new GNU-format incremental backup -G, –incremental handle old GNU-format incremental backup –ignore-failed-read do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files –level=NUMBER dump level for created listed-incremental archive -n, –seek archive is seekable –no-check-device do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives –no-seek archive is not seekable –occurrence[=NUMBER] process only the NUMBERth occurrence of each file** in the archive; this option is valid only in conjunction with one of the subcommands –delete, –diff, –extract or –list and when a list of files is given either on the command line or via the -T option; NUMBER defaults to 1** –sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR] set version of the sparse format to use (implies –sparse) -S, –sparse handle sparse files efficiently

Overwrite control:

-k, –keep-old-files don’t replace existing files when extracting, treat them as errors –keep-directory-symlink preserve existing symlinks to directories when extracting –keep-newer-files don’t replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies –no-overwrite-dir preserve metadata of existing directories –one-top-level[=DIR] create a subdirectory to avoid having loose files extracted –overwrite overwrite existing files when extracting –overwrite-dir overwrite metadata of existing directories when** extracting (default)** –recursive-unlink empty hierarchies prior to extracting directory –remove-files remove files 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 attempt to verify the archive after writing it

Select output stream:

–ignore-command-error ignore exit codes of children –no-ignore-command-error treat non-zero exit codes of children as error

-O, –to-stdout extract files to standard output –to-command=COMMAND pipe extracted files to another program

Handling of file attributes:

–atime-preserve[=METHOD] preserve access times on dumped files, either** by restoring the times after reading (METHOD=’replace’; default) or by not setting the times in the first place (METHOD=’system’)** –clamp-mtime only set time when the file is more recent than what was given with –mtime –delay-directory-restore delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted directories until the end of extraction –group=NAME force NAME as group for added files –mode=CHANGES force (symbolic) mode CHANGES for added files –mtime=DATE-OR-FILE set mtime for added files from DATE-OR-FILE

-m, –touch don’t extract file modified time –no-delay-directory-restore cancel the effect of –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 force NAME as owner for added files -p, –preserve-permissions, –same-permissions** extract information about file permissions (default for superuser)** –preserve same as both -p and -s –same-owner ** try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser)** -s, –preserve-order, –same-order member arguments are listed in the same order as the files in the archive –sort=ORDER ** directory sorting order: none (default), name or inode**

Handling of extended file attributes:

–acls Enable the POSIX ACLs support –no-acls Disable the POSIX ACLs support –no-selinux Disable the SELinux context support –no-xattrs Disable extended attributes support –selinux Enable the SELinux context support –xattrs Enable extended attributes support –xattrs-exclude=MASK specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys –xattrs-include=MASK specify the include pattern for xattr keys

Device selection and switching:

-f, –file=ARCHIVE use archive file or device ARCHIVE –force-local archive file is local even if it has a colon -F, –info-script=NAME, –new-volume-script=NAME run script at end of each tape (implies -M) -L, –tape-length=NUMBER change tape after writing NUMBER x 1024 bytes -M, –multi-volume create/list/extract multi-volume archive –rmt-command=COMMAND use given rmt COMMAND instead of rmt –rsh-command=COMMAND use remote COMMAND instead of rsh –volno-file=FILE use/update the volume number in FILE

Device blocking:

-b, –blocking-factor=BLOCKS BLOCKS x 512 bytes per record -B, –read-full-records reblock as we read (for 4.2BSD pipes) -i, –ignore-zeros ignore zeroed blocks in archive (means EOF) –record-size=NUMBER NUMBER of bytes per record, multiple of 512

Archive format selection:

-H, –format=FORMAT create archive of the given format

FORMAT is one of the following:

gnu GNU tar 1.13.x format oldgnu GNU format as per tar <= 1.12 pax POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format posix same as pax 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 –posix same as –format=posix

-V, –label=TEXT create archive with volume name TEXT; at list/extract time, 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=PROG filter through PROG (must accept -d) -j, –bzip2 filter the archive through bzip2 -J, –xz filter the archive through xz –lzip filter the archive through lzip –lzma filter the archive through xz –lzop filter the archive through xz –no-auto-compress do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program -z, –gzip, –gunzip, –ungzip filter the archive through gzip -Z, –compress, –uncompress filter the archive through compress

Local file selection:

–add-file=FILE add given FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash) –backup[=CONTROL] backup before removal, choose version CONTROL

-C, –directory=DIR change to directory DIR –exclude=PATTERN exclude files, given as a PATTERN –exclude-backups exclude backup and lock files –exclude-caches exclude contents of directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG, except for the tag file itself –exclude-caches-all exclude directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG –exclude-caches-under exclude everything under directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG –exclude-ignore=FILE read exclude patterns for each directory from FILE, if it exists –exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE read exclude patterns for each directory and its subdirectories from FILE, if it exists –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 read exclude patterns from the VCS ignore files -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-NAME begin at member MEMBER-NAME when reading the archive –newer-mtime=DATE compare date and time when data changed only –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 –null -T reads null-terminated names, disable -C -N, –newer=DATE-OR-FILE, –after-date=DATE-OR-FILE only store files newer than DATE-OR-FILE –one-file-system stay in local file system when creating archive -P, –absolute-names don’t strip leading ‘/’s from file names –recursion recurse into directories (default) –suffix=STRING backup before removal, override usual suffix (‘~’ unless overridden by environment variable SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX) -T, –files-from=FILE get names to extract or create from FILE –unquote unquote input file or member names (default) -X, –exclude-from=FILE exclude 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 (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[=NUMBER] display progress messages every NUMBERth record (default 10) –checkpoint-action=ACTION execute ACTION on each checkpoint –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 name quoting style; see below for valid STYLE values -R, –block-number show block number within archive with each message

–show-defaults show tar defaults –show-omitted-dirs when listing or extracting, list each directory that does not match search criteria –show-snapshot-field-ranges show valid ranges for snapshot-file fields –show-transformed-names, –show-stored-names show file or archive names after transformation –totals[=SIGNAL] print total bytes after processing the archive; with an argument - print total bytes when this SIGNAL is delivered; Allowed signals are: SIGHUP, SIGQUIT, SIGINT, SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2; the names without SIG prefix are also accepted –utc print file modification times in UTC

-v, –verbose verbosely list files processed –warning=KEYWORD warning control -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

Other options:

-?, –help give this help list –restrict disable use of some potentially harmful options –usage give a short usage message –version print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options.

The backup suffix is ‘~’, unless set with –suffix or SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX. The version control may be set with –backup or VERSION_CONTROL, values are:

none, off never make backups t, numbered make numbered backups nil, existing numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise never, simple always make simple backups

Valid arguments for the –quoting-style option are:

literal shell shell-always c c-maybe escape locale clocale

This tar defaults to: –format=gnu -f- -b20 –quoting-style=escape –rmt-command=/usr/lib/tar/rmt –rsh-command=/usr/bin/rsh

Report bugs to [email protected].

Reference

GNU image from [link].