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Typically, tar carries out a command without stopping for
further instructions. In some situations however, you may want to
exclude some files and archive members from the operation (for instance
if disk or storage space is tight). You can do this by excluding
certain files automatically (
FIXME: pxref File Exclusion), or by performing an operation interactively, using the `--interactive' (`-w') option.
tar also accepts `--confirmation' for this option.
When the `--interactive' (`-w') option is specified, before
reading, writing, or deleting files, tar first prints a message
for each such file, telling what operation it intends to take, then asks
for confirmation on the terminal. The actions which require
confirmation include adding a file to the archive, extracting a file
from the archive, deleting a file from the archive, and deleting a file
from disk. To confirm the action, you must type a line of input
beginning with `y'. If your input line begins with anything other
than `y', tar skips that file.
If tar is reading the archive from the standard input,
tar opens the file `/dev/tty' to support the interactive
communications.
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