Managing tar files

tar.gz.cheat_sheet

tar stores relative paths by default. GNU tar even says so if you try to store an absolute path:

# Create .tar file (with gzip)
tar -zcvf foo.tar /home/foo

# Have a look at what's in the tar file:
tar -tvf foo.tar

# Extracting file from tar file
tar -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # Note: no leading slash

# Simulating absolute paths
tar -C / -xvf foo.tar home/foo/bar # -C is the ‘change directory’ option