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tar documentation
Being careful, the first thing is really checking that you are using GNU
tar, indeed. The `--version' option will generate a message
giving confirmation that you are using GNU tar, with the precise
version of GNU tar you are using. tar identifies itself
and prints the version number to the standard output, then immediately
exits successfully, without doing anything else, ignoring all other
options. For example, `tar --version' might return:
GNU tar version 1.11.8
Another thing you might want to do is checking the spelling or meaning
of some particular tar option, without resorting to this manual,
for once you have carefully read it. GNU tar has a short help
feature, triggerable through the `--help' option. By using this
option, tar will print a usage message listing all available
options on standard output, then exit successfully, without doing
anything else and ignoring all other options. Even if this is only a
brief summary, it may be several screens long. So, if you are not
using some kind of scrollable window, you might prefer to use something
like:
tar --help | less
presuming, here, that you like using less for a pager. Other
popular pagers are more and pg.
The perceptive reader would have noticed some contradiction in the previous paragraphs. It is written that both `--version' and `--help' print something, and have all other options ignored. In fact, they cannot ignore each other, and one of them has to win. We do not specify which is stronger, here; experiment if you really wonder!
The short help output is quite succint, and you might have to get back
to the full documentation for precise points. If you are reading this
paragraph, you already have the tar manual in some form. This
manual is available in printed form, as a kind of small book. It may
printed out of the GNU tar distribution, provided you have TeX
already installed somewhere, and a laser printer around. Just configure
the distribution, execute the command `make dvi', then print
`doc/tar.dvi' the usual way (contact your local guru to know how).
If GNU tar has been conveniently installed at your place, this
manual is also available in interactive, hypertextual form as an Info
file. Just call `info tar' or, if you do not have the
info program handy, use the Info reader provided within GNU
Emacs, calling `tar' from the main Info menu.
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