cli-tarHow do I tar a directory in Unix?

To tar a directory in Unix, use the tar command. The syntax for the command is tar -cvf <name of tar file>.tar <name of directory>. This command will create a tar file of the given directory.

For example:

tar -cvf my_directory.tar my_directory

This command will create a tar file called my_directory.tar with the contents of the directory my_directory.

The parts of the command are as follows:

• tar - the tar command
• -cvf - flags for the tar command, which stands for create, verbose, and file
• my_directory.tar - the name of the tar file to be created
• my_directory - the name of the directory to be tarred

Helpful links

• tar command manual
• tar command tutorial

Edit this code on GitHub