(tar) list

 
 How to List Archives
 ====================
 
    Frequently, you will find yourself wanting to determine exactly what
 a particular archive contains.  You can use the `--list' (`-t')
 operation to get the member names as they currently appear in the
 archive, as well as various attributes of the files at the time they
 were archived.  For example, you can examine the archive
 `collection.tar' that you created in the last section with the command,
 
      $ tar --list --file=collection.tar
 
 The output of `tar' would then be:
 
      blues
      folk
      jazz
 
 The archive `bfiles.tar' would list as follows:
 
      ./birds
      baboon
      ./box
 
 Be sure to use a `--file=ARCHIVE-NAME' (`-f ARCHIVE-NAME') option just
 as with `--create' (`-c') to specify the name of the archive.
 
    If you use the `--verbose' (`-v') option with `--list', then `tar'
 will print out a listing reminiscent of `ls -l', showing owner, file
 size, and so forth.
 
    If you had used `--verbose' (`-v') mode, the example above would look
 like:
 
      $ tar --list --verbose --file=collection.tar folk
      -rw-rw-rw- myself user 62 1990-05-23 10:55 folk
 
    You can specify one or more individual member names as arguments when
 using `list'.  In this case, `tar' will only list the names of members
 you identify.  For example, `tar --list --file=afiles.tar apple' would
 only print `apple'.
 
    Because `tar' preserves paths, file names must be specified as they
 appear in the archive (ie., relative to the directory from which the
 archive was created).  Therefore, it is essential when specifying
 member names to `tar' that you give the exact member names.  For
 example, `tar --list --file=bfiles birds' would produce an error message
 something like `tar: birds: Not found in archive', because there is no
 member named `birds', only one named `./birds'.  While the names
 `birds' and `./birds' name the same file, _member_ names are compared
 using a simplistic name comparison, in which an exact match is
 necessary.   absolute.
 
    However, `tar --list --file=collection.tar folk' would respond with
 `folk', because `folk' is in the archive file `collection.tar'.  If you
 are not sure of the exact file name, try listing all the files in the
 archive and searching for the one you expect to find; remember that if
 you use `--list' with no file names as arguments, `tar' will print the
 names of all the members stored in the specified archive.
(tar) list

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