GNU Info

(tar.info)verbose tutorial

---

Next: help tutorial Prev: file tutorial Up: Two Frequent Options

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

The `--verbose' Option
----------------------

`--verbose'
`-v'
     Show the files being worked on as `tar' is running.

   `--verbose' (`-v') shows details about the results of running `tar'.
This can be especially useful when the results might not be obvious.
For example, if you want to see the progress of `tar' as it writes
files into the archive, you can use the `--verbose' option.  In the
beginning, you may find it useful to use `--verbose' at all times; when
you are more accustomed to `tar', you will likely want to use it at
certain times but not at others.  We will use `--verbose' at times to
help make something clear, and we will give many examples both using
and not using `--verbose' to show the differences.

   Sometimes, a single instance of `--verbose' on the command line will
show a full, `ls' style listing of an archive or files, giving sizes,
owners, and similar information.  Other times, `--verbose' will only
show files or members that the particular operation is operating on at
the time.  In the latter case, you can use `--verbose' twice in a
command to get a listing such as that in the former case.  For example,
instead of saying

     tar -cvf afiles.tar apple angst aspic

above, you might say

     tar -cvvf afiles.tar apple angst aspic

This works equally well using short or long forms of options.  Using
long forms, you would simply write out the mnemonic form of the option
twice, like this:

     $ tar --create --verbose --verbose ...

Note that you must double the hyphens properly each time.

   Later in the tutorial, we will give examples using
`--verbose --verbose'.