GNU Info

(tar.info)file tutorial

---

Next: verbose tutorial Up: Two Frequent Options

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

The `--file' Option
-------------------

`--file=ARCHIVE-NAME'
`-f ARCHIVE-NAME'
     Specify the name of an archive file.

   You can specify an argument for the `--file=ARCHIVE-NAME' (`-f
ARCHIVE-NAME') option whenever you use `tar'; this option determines
the name of the archive file that `tar' will work on.

   If you don't specify this argument, then `tar' will use a default,
usually some physical tape drive attached to your machine.  If there is
no tape drive attached, or the default is not meaningful, then `tar'
will print an error message.  The error message might look roughly like
one of the following:

     tar: can't open /dev/rmt8 : No such device or address
     tar: can't open /dev/rsmt0 : I/O error

To avoid confusion, we recommend that you always specify an archive file
name by using `--file=ARCHIVE-NAME' (`-f ARCHIVE-NAME') when writing
your `tar' commands.  For more information on using the
`--file=ARCHIVE-NAME' (`-f ARCHIVE-NAME') option, see Note: file.