<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">
<erlref>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>2003</year><year>2013</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>erl_tar</title>
<prepared>Bjorn Gustavsson</prepared>
<responsible>Bjorn Gustavsson</responsible>
<docno>1</docno>
<approved>Kenneth Lundin</approved>
<checked></checked>
<date>03-01-21</date>
<rev>A</rev>
<file>erl_tar.sgml</file>
</header>
<module>erl_tar</module>
<modulesummary>Unix 'tar' utility for reading and writing tar archives</modulesummary>
<description>
<p>The <c>erl_tar</c> module archives and extract files to and from
a tar file. The tar file format is the POSIX extended tar file format
specified in IEEE Std 1003.1 and ISO/IEC 9945-1. That is the same
format as used by <c>tar</c> program on Solaris, but is not the same
as used by the GNU tar program.</p>
<p>By convention, the name of a tar file should end in "<c>.tar</c>".
To abide to the convention, you'll need to add "<c>.tar</c>" yourself
to the name.</p>
<p>Tar files can be created in one operation using the
<seealso marker="#create_2">create/2</seealso> or
<seealso marker="#create_3">create/3</seealso> function.</p>
<p>Alternatively, for more control, the
<seealso marker="#open">open</seealso>,
<seealso marker="#add">add/3,4</seealso>, and
<seealso marker="#close">close/1</seealso> functions can be used.</p>
<p>To extract all files from a tar file, use the
<seealso marker="#extract_1">extract/1</seealso> function.
To extract only some files or to be able to specify some more options,
use the <seealso marker="#extract_2">extract/2</seealso> function.</p>
<p>To return a list of the files in a tar file,
use either the <seealso marker="#table_1">table/1</seealso> or
<seealso marker="#table_2">table/2</seealso> function.
To print a list of files to the Erlang shell,
use either the <seealso marker="#t_1">t/1</seealso> or
<seealso marker="#tt_1">tt/1</seealso> function.</p>
<p>To convert an error term returned from one of the functions
above to a readable message, use the
<seealso marker="#format_error_1">format_error/1</seealso> function.</p>
</description>
<section>
<title>UNICODE SUPPORT</title>
<p>If <seealso
marker="kernel:file#native_name_encoding/0">file:native_name_encoding/0</seealso>
returns <c>utf8</c>, path names will be encoded in UTF-8 when
creating tar files and path names will be assumed to be encoded in
UTF-8 when extracting tar files.</p>
<p>If <seealso
marker="kernel:file#native_name_encoding/0">file:native_name_encoding/0</seealso>
returns <c>latin1</c>, no translation of path names will be
done.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>LIMITATIONS</title>
<p>For maximum compatibility, it is safe to archive files with names
up to 100 characters in length. Such tar files can generally be
extracted by any <c>tar</c> program.</p>
<p>If filenames exceed 100 characters in length, the resulting tar
file can only be correctly extracted by a POSIX-compatible <c>tar</c>
program (such as Solaris <c>tar</c>), not by GNU tar.</p>
<p>File have longer names than 256 bytes cannot be stored at all.</p>
<p>The filename of the file a symbolic link points is always limited
to 100 characters.</p>
</section>
<funcs>
<func>
<name>add(TarDescriptor, Filename, Options) -> RetValue</name>
<fsummary>Add a file to an open tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>TarDescriptor = term()</v>
<v>Filename = filename()</v>
<v>Options = [Option]</v>
<v>Option = dereference|verbose</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|{error,{Filename,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="add"></marker><c>add/3</c> function adds
a file to a tar file that has been opened for writing by
<seealso marker="#open">open/1</seealso>.</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>dereference</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, symbolic links will be stored as symbolic links
in the tar file. Use the <c>dereference</c> option to override the
default and store the file that the symbolic link points to into
the tar file.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>verbose</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Print an informational message about the file being added.</p>
</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>add(TarDescriptor, FilenameOrBin, NameInArchive, Options) -> RetValue </name>
<fsummary>Add a file to an open tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>TarDescriptor = term()</v>
<v>FilenameOrBin = Filename()|binary()</v>
<v>Filename = filename()()</v>
<v>NameInArchive = filename()</v>
<v>Options = [Option]</v>
<v>Option = dereference|verbose</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|{error,{Filename,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <c>add/4</c> function adds a file to a tar file
that has been opened for writing by
<seealso marker="#open">open/1</seealso>. It accepts the same
options as <seealso marker="#add">add/3</seealso>.</p>
<p><c>NameInArchive</c> is the name under which the file will
be stored in the tar file. That is the name that the file will
get when it will be extracted from the tar file.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>close(TarDescriptor)</name>
<fsummary>Close an open tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>TarDescriptor = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="close"></marker><c>close/1</c> function
closes a tar file
opened by <seealso marker="#open">open/1</seealso>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>create(Name, FileList) ->RetValue </name>
<fsummary>Create a tar archive</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
<v>FileList = [Filename|{NameInArchive, binary()},{NameInArchive, Filename}]</v>
<v>Filename = filename()</v>
<v>NameInArchive = filename()</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="create_2"></marker><c>create/2</c> function
creates a tar file and
archives the files whose names are given in <c>FileList</c> into it.
The files may either be read from disk or given as
binaries.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>create(Name, FileList, OptionList)</name>
<fsummary>Create a tar archive with options</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
<v>FileList = [Filename|{NameInArchive, binary()},{NameInArchive, Filename}]</v>
<v>Filename = filename()</v>
<v>NameInArchive = filename()</v>
<v>OptionList = [Option]</v>
<v>Option = compressed|cooked|dereference|verbose</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="create_3"></marker><c>create/3</c> function
creates a tar file and archives the files whose names are given
in <c>FileList</c> into it. The files may either be read from
disk or given as binaries.</p>
<p>The options in <c>OptionList</c> modify the defaults as follows.
</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>compressed</c></tag>
<item>
<p>The entire tar file will be compressed, as if it has
been run through the <c>gzip</c> program. To abide to the
convention that a compressed tar file should end in "<c>.tar.gz</c>" or
"<c>.tgz</c>", you'll need to add the appropriate extension yourself.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>cooked</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, the <c>open/2</c> function will open the tar file
in <c>raw</c> mode, which is faster but does not allow a remote (erlang)
file server to be used. Adding <c>cooked</c> to the mode list will
override the default and open the tar file without the <c>raw</c>
option.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>dereference</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, symbolic links will be stored as symbolic links
in the tar file. Use the <c>dereference</c> option to override the
default and store the file that the symbolic link points to into
the tar file.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>verbose</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Print an informational message about each file being added.</p>
</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>extract(Name) -> RetValue</name>
<fsummary>Extract all files from a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="extract_1"></marker><c>extract/1</c> function
extracts all files from a tar archive.</p>
<p>If the <c>Name</c> argument is given as "<c>{binary,Binary}</c>",
the contents of the binary is assumed to be a tar archive.
</p>
<p>If the <c>Name</c> argument is given as "<c>{file,Fd}</c>",
<c>Fd</c> is assumed to be a file descriptor returned from
the <c>file:open/2</c> function.
</p>
<p>Otherwise, <c>Name</c> should be a filename.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>extract(Name, OptionList)</name>
<fsummary>Extract files from a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename() | {binary,Binary} | {file,Fd} </v>
<v>Binary = binary()</v>
<v>Fd = file_descriptor()</v>
<v>OptionList = [Option]</v>
<v>Option = {cwd,Cwd}|{files,FileList}|keep_old_files|verbose|memory</v>
<v>Cwd = [dirname()]</v>
<v>FileList = [filename()]</v>
<v>RetValue = ok|MemoryRetValue|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>MemoryRetValue = {ok, [{NameInArchive,binary()}]}</v>
<v>NameInArchive = filename()</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="extract_2"></marker><c>extract/2</c> function
extracts files from a tar archive.</p>
<p>If the <c>Name</c> argument is given as "<c>{binary,Binary}</c>",
the contents of the binary is assumed to be a tar archive.
</p>
<p>If the <c>Name</c> argument is given as "<c>{file,Fd}</c>",
<c>Fd</c> is assumed to be a file descriptor returned from
the <c>file:open/2</c> function.
</p>
<p>Otherwise, <c>Name</c> should be a filename.
</p>
<p>The following options modify the defaults for the extraction as
follows.</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>{cwd,Cwd}</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Files with relative filenames will by default be extracted
to the current working directory.
Given the <c>{cwd,Cwd}</c> option, the <c>extract/2</c> function
will extract into the directory <c>Cwd</c> instead of to the current
working directory.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>{files,FileList}</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, all files will be extracted from the tar file.
Given the <c>{files,Files}</c> option, the <c>extract/2</c> function
will only extract the files whose names are included in <c>FileList</c>.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>compressed</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Given the <c>compressed</c> option, the <c>extract/2</c>
function will uncompress the file while extracting
If the tar file is not actually compressed, the <c>compressed</c>
will effectively be ignored.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>cooked</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, the <c>open/2</c> function will open the tar file
in <c>raw</c> mode, which is faster but does not allow a remote (erlang)
file server to be used. Adding <c>cooked</c> to the mode list will
override the default and open the tar file without the <c>raw</c>
option.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>memory</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Instead of extracting to a directory, the memory option will
give the result as a list of tuples {Filename, Binary}, where
Binary is a binary containing the extracted data of the file named
Filename in the tar file.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>keep_old_files</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, all existing files with the same name as file in
the tar file will be overwritten
Given the <c>keep_old_files</c> option, the <c>extract/2</c> function
will not overwrite any existing files.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>verbose</c></tag>
<item>
<p>Print an informational message as each file is being extracted.</p>
</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>format_error(Reason) -> string()</name>
<fsummary>Convert error term to a readable string</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="format_error_1"></marker><c>format_error/1</c>
function converts
an error reason term to a human-readable error message string.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>open(Name, OpenModeList) -> RetValue</name>
<fsummary>Open a tar file for writing.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
<v>OpenModeList = [OpenMode]</v>
<v>Mode = write|compressed|cooked</v>
<v>RetValue = {ok,TarDescriptor}|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>TarDescriptor = term()</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="open"></marker><c>open/2</c> function creates
a tar file for writing.
(Any existing file with the same name will be truncated.)</p>
<p>By convention, the name of a tar file should end in "<c>.tar</c>".
To abide to the convention, you'll need to add "<c>.tar</c>" yourself
to the name.</p>
<p>Except for the <c>write</c> atom the following atoms
may be added to <c>OpenModeList</c>:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>compressed</c></tag>
<item>
<p>The entire tar file will be compressed, as if it has
been run through the <c>gzip</c> program. To abide to the
convention that a compressed tar file should end in "<c>.tar.gz</c>" or
"<c>.tgz</c>", you'll need to add the appropriate extension yourself.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>cooked</c></tag>
<item>
<p>By default, the <c>open/2</c> function will open the tar file
in <c>raw</c> mode, which is faster but does not allow a remote (erlang)
file server to be used. Adding <c>cooked</c> to the mode list will
override the default and open the tar file without the <c>raw</c>
option.</p>
</item>
</taglist>
<p>Use the <seealso marker="#add">add/3,4</seealso> functions
to add one file at the time into an opened tar file. When you are
finished adding files, use the <seealso marker="#close">close</seealso>
function to close the tar file.</p>
<warning>
<p>The <c>TarDescriptor</c> term is not a file descriptor.
You should not rely on the specific contents of the <c>TarDescriptor</c>
term, as it may change in future versions as more features are added
to the <c>erl_tar</c> module.</p>
</warning>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>table(Name) -> RetValue</name>
<fsummary>Retrieve the name of all files in a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
<v>RetValue = {ok,[string()]}|{error,{Name,Reason}}</v>
<v>Reason = term()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="table_1"></marker><c>table/1</c> function
retrieves the names of all files in the tar file <c>Name</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>table(Name, Options)</name>
<fsummary>Retrieve name and information of all files in a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="table_2"></marker><c>table/2</c> function
retrieves the names of all files in the tar file <c>Name</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>t(Name)</name>
<fsummary>Print the name of each file in a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="t_1"></marker><c>t/1</c> function prints the names
of all files in the tar file <c>Name</c> to the Erlang shell.
(Similar to "<c>tar t</c>".)</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>tt(Name)</name>
<fsummary>Print name and information for each file in a tar file</fsummary>
<type>
<v>Name = filename()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>The <marker id="tt_1"></marker><c>tt/1</c> function prints
names and
information about all files in the tar file <c>Name</c> to
the Erlang shell. (Similar to "<c>tar tv</c>".)</p>
</desc>
</func>
</funcs>
</erlref>