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How to write a 'tar' command

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  • No no it's this:

    1. Decide you've gotta use tar.

    2. man tar

    3. Guess-and-check the flags until it seems to work.

    4. Immediately forget the flags.

    • That was my case until I discovered that GNU tar has got a pretty decent online manual - it's way better written than the manpage. I rarely forget the options nowadays even though I dont' use tar that frequently.

    • As much as I also do step 4, to be honest I don't see people use man anywhere near as much as they should. Whenever faced with the question "what are the arguments for doing xyz", I immediately man it and just tell them - Practically everywhere you can execute a given command, you can also read full and comprehensive documentation, just look!

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