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How to Add Files to Existing Archives: `--append'
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   If you want to add files to an existing archive, you don't need to
create a new archive; you can use `--append' (`-r').  The archive must
already exist in order to use `--append'.  (A related operation is the
`--update' operation; you can use this to add newer versions of archive
members to an existing archive.  To learn how to do this with
`--update', Note: update.)

   If you use `--append' (`-r') to add a file that has the same name as
an archive member to an archive containing that archive member, then the
old member is not deleted.  What does happen, however, is somewhat
complex.  `tar' _allows_ you to have infinite numbers of files with the
same name.  Some operations treat these same-named members no
differently than any other set of archive members: for example, if you
view an archive with `--list' (`-t'), you will see all of those members
listed, with their modification times, owners, etc.

   Other operations don't deal with these members as perfectly as you
might prefer; if you were to use `--extract' (`--get', `-x') to extract
the archive, only the most recently added copy of a member with the
same name as four other members would end up in the working directory.
This is because `--extract' extracts an archive in the order the
members appeared in the archive; the most recently archived members
will be extracted last.  Additionally, an extracted member will
_replace_ a file of the same name which existed in the directory
already, and `tar' will not prompt you about this.  Thus, only the most
recently archived member will end up being extracted, as it will
replace the one extracted before it, and so on.

   There are a few ways to get around this.

   If you want to replace an archive member, use `--delete' to delete
the member you want to remove from the archive, , and then use
`--append' to add the member you want to be in the archive.  Note that
you can not change the order of the archive; the most recently added
member will still appear last.  In this sense, you cannot truly
"replace" one member with another.  (Replacing one member with another
will not work on certain types of media, such as tapes; see Note:
delete and Note: Media, for more information.)

appending files

Appending Files to an Archive

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