[SunHELP] clarification - what does the 'f' option do in the tar and jar commands?

[Edward Chase]

I've not use jar before, so I'll answer for tar

the f option is used to send the "tarball" to a file

for instance...

cd /
tar -cf /backupfile.tar ./home

The above will backup the home directory to a file in root directory called 
backupfile.tar

cd /
tar -cf /dev/rmt/0 ./home

The above will backup the home directory to your tape drive

I hope this helps...


At 06:41 PM 4/17/2002 -0700, Solaris Neophyte wrote:
>i'm confused as to what this option does exactly... I see it all the time 
>in examples...in my solaris text is says the following which is entirely 
>cryptic to me... tarf - Specifices the archivefile or tape device.  The 
>default tape device is /dev/rmt/0.  If archivefile is "-", then the tar 
>command reads from standard input or writes to standard output, whichever 
>is appropriatejarf - Specifies the jar file or tape drive.  The jar 
>command sends the data to the screen if the "f" option is not used.can 
>someone explain this to me?  from what I gather you have to use the f 
>option to tell it that the following filename or location is where you 
>want to store (or is it copy) the archived file?  now what happens if you 
>don't specify a location for either command?
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