(tar) short create

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(tar) create dir

 
 Short Forms with `create'
 -------------------------
 
    As we said before, the `--create' (`-c') operation is one of the most
 basic uses of `tar', and you will use it countless times.  Eventually,
 you will probably want to use abbreviated (or "short") forms of
 options.  A full discussion of the three different forms that options
 can take appears in  Styles; for now, here is what the previous
 example (including the `--verbose' (`-v') option) looks like using
 short option forms:
 
      $ tar -cvf collection.tar blues folk jazz
      blues
      folk
      jazz
 
 As you can see, the system responds the same no matter whether you use
 long or short option forms.
 
    One difference between using short and long option forms is that,
 although the exact placement of arguments following options is no more
 specific when using short forms, it is easier to become confused and
 make a mistake when using short forms.  For example, suppose you
 attempted the above example in the following way:
 
      $ tar -cfv collection.tar blues folk jazz
 
 In this case, `tar' will make an archive file called `v', containing
 the files `blues', `folk', and `jazz', because the `v' is the closest
 "file name" to the `-f' option, and is thus taken to be the chosen
 archive file name.  `tar' will try to add a file called
 `collection.tar' to the `v' archive file; if the file `collection.tar'
 did not already exist, `tar' will report an error indicating that this
 file does not exist.  If the file `collection.tar' does already exist
 (e.g., from a previous command you may have run), then `tar' will add
 this file to the archive.  Because the `-v' option did not get
 registered, `tar' will not run under `verbose' mode, and will not
 report its progress.
 
    The end result is that you may be quite confused about what happened,
 and possibly overwrite a file.  To illustrate this further, we will show
 you how an example we showed previously would look using short forms.
 
    This example,
 
      $ tar blues --create folk --file=collection.tar jazz
 
 is confusing as it is.  When shown using short forms, however, it
 becomes much more so:
 
      $ tar blues -c folk -f collection.tar jazz
 
 It would be very easy to put the wrong string of characters immediately
 following the `-f', but doing that could sacrifice valuable data.
 
    For this reason, we recommend that you pay very careful attention to
 the order of options and placement of file and archive names,
 especially when using short option forms.  Not having the option name
 written out mnemonically can affect how well you remember which option
 does what, and therefore where different names have to be placed.
 (Placing options in an unusual order can also cause `tar' to report an
 error if you have set the shell environment variable `POSIXLY_CORRECT';
  posix compliance for more information on this.)
 

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(tar) create verbose

(tar) create

(tar) create dir