Initially, tar archives were used to store files conveniently on magnetic tape. The name "Tar" comes from this use; it stands for tape archiver. Despite the utility's name, Tar can direct its output to available devices, files, or other programs (using pipes), it can even access remote devices or files (as archives).
Create a new archive with dir to be archived recursively
Extract files from an archive. You can specify which file/dir you want to extract by giving its name.
List the contents of an archive.
Specify the archive being used.
Show the files being worked on as tar is running.
will auto-detect
|Long|Short|Archive format|
|---|---|---|
|‘--gzip’|‘-z’|gzip|
|‘--bzip2’|‘-j’|bzip2|
|‘--xz’|‘-J’|xz|
|‘--lzip’||lzip|
|‘--lzma’||lzma|
|‘--lzop’||lzop|
|‘--zstd’||zstd|
|‘--compress’|‘-Z’|compress|
Append archives to the end of another archive.
Find differences between archive and file system.
Delete from the archive.
Append files to the end of an archive.
Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the archive. Updated files will be tacked to the end of the archive instead of replaced.
Show extra detail about the files being extracted.
https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/tar.html