$ tar --help
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
--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
timesin the first place (METHOD='system')
--delay-directory-restore delay setting modification times and
permissions of extracted directories until the end