mxtar

tar [MODE] [OPTIONS] [ARCHIVE_FILE] [FILES_OR_DIRECTORIES...]

Common Modes:
  tar -c [OPTIONS] -f ARCHIVE_FILE [FILES_OR_DIRECTORIES...]   (Create)
  tar -x [OPTIONS] -f ARCHIVE_FILE [FILES_OR_DIRECTORIES...]   (Extract)
  tar -t [OPTIONS] -f ARCHIVE_FILE   (List contents)

-c, --create
    Creates a new archive.

-x, --extract, --get
    Extracts files from an archive.

-t, --list
    Lists the contents of an archive.

-f ARCHIVE, --file=ARCHIVE
    Specifies the archive file to work with. If omitted, tar uses standard input/output.

-v, --verbose
    Displays detailed information about the files being processed (e.g., file names during creation/extraction).

-z, --gzip, --ungzip
    Filters the archive through gzip, for creating or extracting .tar.gz or .tgz files.

-j, --bzip2
    Filters the archive through bzip2, for creating or extracting .tar.bz2 or .tbz files.

-J, --xz
    Filters the archive through xz, for creating or extracting .tar.xz or .txz files.

-a, --auto-compress
    Uses the archive suffix to determine the compression program (e.g., .gz implies gzip, .bz2 implies bzip2).

-C DIRECTORY, --directory=DIRECTORY
    Changes to DIRECTORY before performing the operation. Useful for extracting files to a specific location.

--exclude=PATTERN
    Excludes files matching PATTERN from the archive.

-p, --preserve-permissions
    Preserves file permissions (mode bits) during extraction. This is often implied by --same-permissions.

--remove-files
    Removes files from the disk after adding them to the archive. Use with caution!

Please note: The command mxtar is not a standard, widely distributed Linux command. This analysis is based on the highly probable interpretation that mxtar is either a typo for the ubiquitous tar (Tape ARchive) command, a custom script or alias wrapping tar, or a very niche/obsolete utility. The information provided below pertains to the standard tar command, which is fundamental for archiving and extracting files on Unix-like operating systems like Linux.

The tar command is used to create and manipulate archive files. An archive file typically contains a collection of files and directories, preserving their structure, permissions, and other metadata. While originally designed for tape backups, tar archives are commonly stored on disk files. It can combine multiple files into a single archive, extract files from an existing archive, list the contents of an archive, or even add files to an existing one. tar itself does not compress files, but it can integrate with external compression utilities like gzip, bzip2, or xz to create compressed archives (e.g., .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tbz, .tar.xz, .txz). This makes tar an indispensable tool for data backup, software distribution, and general file management.

As noted in the description, mxtar is not a standard Linux command. The information provided is for the tar command.

When extracting archives, be mindful of absolute paths. If an archive contains files with absolute paths (e.g., /etc/passwd), tar will typically strip the leading slash by default for security, but some options or older versions might not. Always extract archives into a clean, empty directory to avoid overwriting existing system files. Permissions and ownership can also be tricky; by default, files are extracted with the permissions and ownership of the user running the command, unless -p is used (for permissions) or the command is run as root (for ownership).

Here are some common ways to use tar:

Create a compressed archive:
tar -czf myarchive.tar.gz /home/user/documents
  (Archives 'documents' directory into 'myarchive.tar.gz' using gzip compression.)

Extract a compressed archive:
tar -xzf myarchive.tar.gz -C /tmp/extracted_data
  (Extracts 'myarchive.tar.gz' to '/tmp/extracted_data' using gzip decompression.)

List contents of an archive:
tar -tvf myarchive.tar.gz
  (Lists the files within 'myarchive.tar.gz' with verbose details.)

Archive multiple files/directories:
tar -cvf backup.tar /etc/config /var/log/syslog.log
  (Archives selected files and directories into 'backup.tar'.)

When creating archives, tar stores paths relative to the directory it's run from, unless you specify absolute paths. It's generally best practice to change into the directory you want to archive and then specify files relative to that, or use the -C option. For instance, to archive /home/user/data, it's better to do tar -cf archive.tar -C /home/user data than tar -cf archive.tar /home/user/data, as the former will store 'data/' at the archive root, while the latter will store 'home/user/data/'.

The tar command originated in the early days of Unix, primarily developed for backing up data to sequential access storage devices, particularly magnetic tape drives (hence Tape ARchive). It became a de facto standard for packaging files. The GNU project developed GNU tar, which is the most common version found on Linux systems today. GNU tar extended the original utility with numerous features, including support for larger file sizes, integration with various compression programs, and more flexible options for manipulating archives on disk files rather than just tape devices.

gzip(1), bzip2(1), xz(1), cpio(1), pax(1), zip(1)