this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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tar -vczfx123 ought to do it (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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img title="I don't know what's worse--the fact that after 15 years of using tar I still can't keep the flags straight, or that after 15 years of technological advancement I'm still mucking with tar flags that were 15 years old when I started."

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[–] [email protected] 137 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't tar --help suffice? Afaik, it returns exit code 0.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Depends. Is it GNU tar, BSD tar or some old school Unix tar?

Double hyphen "long options" are a typical GNU thing.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That’s why those commands have two?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Yes, the terse Unix version, which needs to be supported for compatibility, and the more readable GNU long option

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

tar -h?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children) 
~# tar -h
tar: You must specify one of the '-Acdtrux', '--delete' or '--test-label' options
Try 'tar --help' or 'tar --usage' for more information.
***********************************************
WARNING: Self destruct sequence initiated
***********************************************

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Ugh. Bsdtar:

-h (c and r modes only) Synonym for -L.

But it has --help too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) 
~# tar -h || tar --help