tar

rm -rf *  # delete the content of current directory.

Creating the Archive

To place the files 'blues','folk' and 'jazz' into an archive named 'collection.tar',use the following command:

Note:

　　collection.tar is archive,and 'blues','folk','jazz' are archive members.

tar --create --file=collection.tar blues folk jazz

tar -c -f collection.tar blues folk jazz

tar -cf collection.tar blues folk jazz

Always place option as the first argument.
Note that the sequence '--file=collection.tar' is considered to be one argument.

You could issue the following command,but it's hard to understand:

tar --create folk blues --file=collection.tar jazz

About --verbose option

tar -cf collection.tar blues folk jazz

No hints.

tar -cvf collection.tar blues folk jazz

blues
folk
jazz

tar -cvvf collection.tar blues folk jazz

-rw-r--r-- dwl/dwl           0 2018-09-14 11:16 blues
-rw-r--r-- dwl/dwl           0 2018-09-14 11:16 folk
-rw-r--r-- dwl/dwl           0 2018-09-14 11:16 jazz

IMPORTANT:

tar -cfv collection.tar blues folk jazz

will create a archive named v, which containing archive member collection.tar (if do not exist,tar will complain,and create v archive without collection.tar),blues,folk,jazz. Because v is closest to the -f option.As you see,it's very risky when using short options.

Caution: Do not attempt to use ‘--create’ (‘-c’) to add files to an existing archive; it will delete the archive and write a new one. Use ‘--append’ (‘-r’) instead.

Archiving Directories

treat directories just like file.

tar -cvf music.tar practice

tar -cvf music.tar ../practice  # do not need leaving current director

Extracting Specific Files

tar -xvvf collection.tar jazz

produce:

-rw-r--r-- dwl/dwl           0 2018-09-14 11:16 jazz

also you can use:

tar -xvf collection.tar jazz

tar -xf collection.tar jazz