Basic tar usage (GNU tar)

Archive a set of files: tar -cvf tarfile.tar /var/log/syslog /var/log/messages Archive and compress (gzip) a set of files: tar -cvzf file.tar.gz /var/log/syslog /var/log/messages Archive and compress (bzip2) a set of files: tar -cvjf file.tar.bz2 /var/log/syslog /var/log/messages Extract a tar file: tar -xvf file.tar tar -xvzf file.tar.gz tar -xvjf file.tar.bz2 Display the content of a tar file: tar -tvf file.tar tar -tvzf file.tar.gz tar -tvjf file.tar.bz2 Replace a file in an existing tar file: tar -rvf tarfile.tar filetoreplace Update a file in an existing tar file: tar -uvf tarfile.tar newfile Copy all files in one directory to another directory on local host: cd /etc; tar cf - . | (cd /etc.bak; tar xvpf -) Copy a directory from one host to another and preserve ownership and permissions: tar -cf - /var/amavisd | ssh user@otherhost tar -xf -