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 Descending into Directories
 ===========================
 
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 Usually, `tar' will recursively explore all directories (either those
 given on the command line or through the `--files-from=FILE-OF-NAMES'
 (`-T FILE-OF-NAMES') option) for the various files they contain.
 However, you may not always want `tar' to act this way.
 
    The `--no-recursion' option inhibits `tar''s recursive descent into
 specified directories.  If you specify `--no-recursion', you can use
 the `find' utility for hunting through levels of directories to
 construct a list of file names which you could then pass to `tar'.
 `find' allows you to be more selective when choosing which files to
 archive; see  files for more information on using `find' with
 `tar', or look.
 
 `--no-recursion'
      Prevents `tar' from recursively descending directories.
 
 `--recursion'
      Requires `tar' to recursively descend directories.  This is the
      default.
 
    When you use `--no-recursion', GNU `tar' grabs directory entries
 themselves, but does not descend on them recursively.  Many people use
 `find' for locating files they want to back up, and since `tar'
 _usually_ recursively descends on directories, they have to use the
 `! -d' option to `find' as they usually do not want all the files in a
 directory.  They then use the `--files-from=FILE-OF-NAMES' (`-T
 FILE-OF-NAMES') option to archive the files located via `find'.
 
    The problem when restoring files archived in this manner is that the
 directories themselves are not in the archive; so the
 `--same-permissions' (`--preserve-permissions', `-p') option does not
 affect them--while users might really like it to.  Specifying
 `--no-recursion' is a way to tell `tar' to grab only the directory
 entries given to it, adding no new files on its own.
 
    The `--no-recursion' option also applies when extracting: it causes
 `tar' to extract only the matched directory entries, not the files
 under those directories.
 
    The `--no-recursion' option also affects how exclude patterns are
 interpreted ( controlling pattern-patching with exclude).
 

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