The tar command was written to archive files. It was originally designed to store data on tape, thus the name, Tape ARchive. Tar allows you to combine multiple files and directories into a single file while retaining the file attributes, such as owner and permissions. The file created by the tar command is often referred to as a tarball. These recipes describe creating archives with tar.
Archiving with tar
Getting ready
The tar command comes by default with all Unix-like operating systems. It has a simple syntax and creates archives in a portable file format. It supports many arguments to fine-tune its behavior.
