What does the tar option file do?
The tar command is used to compress a group of files into an archive. The command is also used to extract, maintain, or modify tar archives. Tar archives combine multiple files and/or directories together into a single file. Tar archives are not necessarily compressed but they can be.
How does tar handle symlinks?
2 Symbolic Links. Normally, when tar archives a symbolic link, it writes a block to the archive naming the target of the link. When ‘ –dereference ‘ (‘ -h ‘) is used with ‘ –create ‘ (‘ -c ‘), tar archives the files symbolic links point to, instead of the links themselves. …
What happens to hard links when you extract from tar?
This means that when you extract that archive, the hard links will be restored. If you use the –hard-dereference option, then tar does not preserve hard links. Instead, it treats them as independent files that just happen to have the same contents and metadata. When you extract the archive, the files will be independent.
What can I use in place of my _ files.tar?
You can use any name in place of my_files.tar, but you should keep the .tar extension. If you don’t use the -f option, tar will assume you want to create a tape archive instead of combining a number of files. The -v option tells tar to be verbose (report all files as they are added).
What is the use of tar in Unix?
In Unix, the name of the tar command is short for tape archiving, the storing of entire file systems onto magnetic tape, which is one use for the command. However, a more common use for tar is to simply combine a few files into a single file, for easy storage and distribution.
What happens when you archive a file with hard links?
By default, if you tell tar to archive a file with hard links, and more than one such link is included among the files to be archived, it archives the file only once, and records the second (and any additional names) as hard links. This means that when you extract that archive, the hard links will be restored.