cli-tarHow do I use the command line to create a tar file?

To create a tar file using the command line, you can use the tar command. The basic syntax for creating a tar file is as follows:

tar -cvf <archive-name>.tar <file-or-directory-to-archive>

This command will create an archive file called <archive-name>.tar containing the file or directory specified.

Code explanation

• tar: This is the command to create the tar file.
• -cvf: This is the flag used to specify the action to be taken. The -c flag is to create a new archive, the -v flag is to be verbose (list the files being archived), and the -f flag is to specify the filename of the archive.
• <archive-name>.tar: This is the name of the tar file that will be created.
• <file-or-directory-to-archive>: This is the file or directory that will be archived.

Here is an example of creating a tar file called myarchive.tar containing the directory mydir:

tar -cvf myarchive.tar mydir

For more information on the tar command, please see the following links:

• GNU tar manual
• Linux man page for tar

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