Listing the files in a tar backup

To see a list of the contents of a tar backup, use the following command:

tar tvf device

The device argument is either the name of the device where the backup is stored, or the name of the file containing the backup. The t and v options combine to display a directory listing, the output of which is similar to ls -l. The f option tells tar to use the next argument (device) as the backup to read from; for example:

   $ tar tv2
   tar: blocksize=20
   rw-r--r--13079/1014    713 Dec 17 11:10 1992 READ.ME
   rw-rw-r--13079/1014     77 Dec 17 09:33 1992 00.partno.nr.Z
   rw-rw-r--13079/1014   1887 Dec 17 09:33 1992 00.title.nr.Z
   rw-rw-r--13079/1014   8735 Dec 17 09:36 1992 00.toc.nr.Z
   rw-rw-r--13079/1014   5961 Dec 17 09:37 1992 01.intro.nr.Z