tar (tape archiver)

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tar (tape archiver)

Type tar then -option(s)

Options list:

-c — create.
-v — verbose, give more output, show what files are being worked with (extracted or added).
-f — file (create or extract from file) – should always be the last option otherwise the command will not work.
-z — put the file though gzip or use gunzip on the file first.
-x — extract the files from the tarball.
-p — preserves dates, permissions of the original files.
-j — send archive through bzip2.
–exclude=pattern — this will stop certain files from being archived (using a standard wild-card pattern) or a single file name.

tar examples
tar -cvpf name_of_file.tar files_to_be_backed_up

This would create a tape archive (no compressing).
tar -zxvpf my_tar_file.tar.gz

This would extract files (verbosely) from a gzipped tape archive.