-C, --directory DIR
change to directory DIR
--check-links
warn if number of hard links to the file on the filesystem mismatch the number of links
recorded in the archive
--checkpoint
print directory names while reading the archive
-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F
use archive file or device F (default "-", meaning stdin/stdout)
-F, --info-script F --new-volume-script F
run script at end of each tape (implies --multi-volume)
--force-local
archive file is local even if has a colon
--format FORMAT
selects output archive format
v7 - Unix V7
oldgnu - GNU tar <=1.12
gnu - GNU tar 1.13
ustar - POSIX.1-1988
posix - POSIX.1-2001
-g, --listed-incremental F
create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup
-G, --incremental
create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup
-h, --dereference
don’t dump symlinks; dump the files they point to
--help like this manpage, but not as cool
-i, --ignore-zeros
ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF)
--ignore-case
ignore case when excluding files
--ignore-failed-read
don’t exit with non-zero status on unreadable files
--index-file FILE
send verbose output to FILE instead of stdout
-j, --bzip2
filter archive through bzip2, use to decompress .bz2 files
-k, --keep-old-files
keep existing files; don’t overwrite them from archive
-K, --starting-file F
begin at file F in the archive
--keep-newer-files
do not overwrite files which are newer than the archive
-l, --one-file-system
stay in local file system when creating an archive
-L, --tape-length N
change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes
-m, --touch, --modification-time
don’t extract file modified time
