cli-tarHow do I use the Unix tar command to create an archive?

The tar command is a widely used Unix command that allows you to create an archive of files. To use tar to create an archive, you will need to specify the -cvf flags and the name of the archive file you wish to create.

For example, to create an archive named my_archive.tar of the files file1.txt and file2.txt in the current directory, you can use the following command:

tar -cvf my_archive.tar file1.txt file2.txt

This will create an archive named my_archive.tar in the current directory containing the two files file1.txt and file2.txt.

The -cvf flags are used as follows:

• -c: This flag tells tar to create an archive.
• -v: This flag tells tar to output a verbose list of the files it is archiving.
• -f: This flag tells tar to use the following argument as the name of the archive file.

You can also use tar to add files to an existing archive. To do this, you will need to use the -rvf flags instead of -cvf.

For example, to add the file file3.txt to the existing archive my_archive.tar, you can use the following command:

tar -rvf my_archive.tar file3.txt

This will add the file file3.txt to the existing archive my_archive.tar.

You can find more detailed information about the tar command and its flags here.

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