tar(4)                                                               tar(4)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      tar - format of tar tape archive

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      The header structure produced by tar (see tar(1)) is as follows (the
      array size defined by the constants is shown on the right):

           struct {
               char name[NAMSIZ];        (100)
               char mode[MODE_SZ];         (8)
               char uid[UID_SZ];           (8)
               char gid[GID_SZ];           (8)
               char size[SIZE_SZ];        (12)
               char mtime[MTIME_SZ];      (12)
               char chksum[CHKSUM_SZ];     (8)
               char typeflag;
               char linkname[NAMSIZ];    (100)
               char magic[MAGIC_SZ];       (6)
               char version[VERSION_SZ];   (2)
               char uname[UNAME_SZ];      (32)
               char gname[GNAME_SZ];      (32)
               char devmajor[DEV_SZ];      (8)
               char devminor[DEV_SZ];      (8)
               char prefix[PREFIX_SZ];   (155)
           } dbuf;

      All characters are represented in ASCII.  There is no padding used in
      the header block; all fields are contiguous.

      The fields magic, uname, and gname are null-terminated character
      strings.  The fields name, linkname, and prefix are null-terminated
      character strings except when all characters in the array contain
      non-null characters, including the last character.  The version field
      is two bytes containing the characters 00 (zero-zero).  The typeflag
      contains a single character.  All other fields are leading-zero-filled
      octal numbers in ASCII.  Each numeric field is terminated by one or
      more space or null characters.

      The name and the prefix fields produce the pathname of the file.  The
      hierarchical relationship of the file is retained by specifying the
      pathname as a path prefix, with a slash character and filename as the
      suffix.  If the prefix contains non-null characters, prefix, a slash
      character, and name are concatenated without modification or addition
      of new characters to produce a new pathname.  In this manner,
      pathnames of at most 256 characters can be supported.  If a pathname
      does not fit in the space provided, the format-creating utility
      notifies the user of the error, and no attempt is made to store any
      part of the file, header, or data on the medium.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      tar(1)



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 tar(4)                                                               tar(4)




 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE    [Toc]    [Back]
      tar: XPG4, FIPS 151-2, POSIX.1


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003