Applications 28 – Uncommon Options of tar Part 4

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Jarret W. Buse

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Applications 28 – Uncommon Options of tar Part 4

This article continues the uncommon options of the tar command.

Recall the basic syntax for using tar is:

tar <operation> [option] [folder/file]

The non-common options for tar are not often used, but you should have an idea of what else can be done with tar.
  • --occurrence[=NUMBER]

When multiple files with the same filename occur in a tar archive, you can have specific commands carried out on an occurrence of the file. The options which work with the “--occurrence” option are “--diff”, “--delete”, “--extract” and “--list”. For example, if a tar file named “archive.tar” had multiple occurrences of the file named “data.db” and you wanted to extract the fifth file with the name, the command would be “tar -xf archive.tar --occurrence 5 data.db”. The file would be extracted to the current folder.

  • --overwrite

When extracting files from an archive, it may be needed that existing files are overwritten. To overwrite files, use the “--overwrite” option. If I had a tar file, named “Docs.tar”, containing documents and I need to extract the files to a folder called “Docs” overwriting all the files, the command would be “tar -xf Docs.tar --overwrite -C Docs/”. The option overwrites existing file permissions with those in the arhive.

  • --overwrite-dir
To overwrite an entire existing directory, use the “--overwrite-dir” option. For example, to overwrite the “Docs” folder from the archive called “Docs.tar”, the command would be “tar -xf Docs.tar –overwrite-dir”. The option overwrites existing file permissions with those in the arhive.

  • --owner USER

To extract files and change the owner of the file at the same time, use the “--owner” option. To extract a file called “Data.db” from the “Database.tar” archive and make the new owner “Jarret”, use the command “tar -xf Database.tar --owner Jarret Data.db”.

  • -p, --same-permissions, --preserve-permissions
The “-p” option is used to extract a file and make sure that the archived permissions are kept as they were in the archive. To extract all files from the “Database.tar” archive and keep the permissions as they were from the archived files, use the command “tar -xf Database.tar -p”.

  • -P, --absolute-names

If files are archived from the root, such as “/usr/share/”, by extracting the files they will start back at the root because of the leading “/” and go into “usr”. To make the files relative to the current folder, use the “-P” option. The leading “/” will be removed and a folder called “usr” will be placed in the local directory. So, to extract files to the local folder which were backed up to a file called “User.tar” of the “/usr/share/” directory, use the command “tar -xf User.tar -P”.

  • --pax-option KEYWORD-LIST

The “--pax-option” option is for POSIX archives to handle extended header keywords. The Keyword List is a list of POSIX header keywords separated by commas.

  • --posix
To specify the tar format is POSIX. The option is the same as “--format-posix” to create POSIX formatted tar files.

  • --preserve
The “--preserve” option acts the same as using the options “--preserve-permissions” and “--same-order”.

  • --acls

On some systems, a file has permissions set by an Access Control List (ACL). If the ACL needs to be kept with the archived files, use the “--acls” option. If you need to create an archive of the files in the “data” folder (named “ACLOut.tar”) and include the ACL, use the command “tar -cf ACLOut.tar --acls data/*”.

  • --no-acls

To prevent the storage or extraction of ACLs, use the “--no-acls” option. For example, to not extract the ACLs from the previous example, the command would be “tar -xf ACLOut.tar --no-acls”.

  • --selinux

Permissions for SELinux are stored in the archive with the files. If you need to create an archive of the files in the “data” folder (named “SELinuxOut.tar”) and include the SELinux permissions, use the command “tar -cf SELinuxOut.tar --selinux data/*”.

  • --no-selinux
To not include the SELinux permissions when creating an archive or when extracting files, use the “--no-selinux” option. If you need to extract an archive of the files in the archive named “SELinuxOut.tar” and not include the SELinux permissions, use the command “tar -xf SELinuxOut.tar --no-selinux”.

  • --xattrs

When needing to archive or extract files with extended attributes, use the “--xattrs” option. The option is equivalent to both the “--acls” and “--selinux” options together.

  • --no-xattrs

The “--no-xattrs” option does not store or extract extended attributes. The option is the same as combining the “--no-acls” and “--no-selinux” options.

As usual, practice the options and understand them.
 

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