tar: Overwrite Old Files
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1 Overwrite Old Files
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1 '--overwrite'
1 Overwrite existing files and directory metadata when extracting
1 files from an archive.
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1 This causes 'tar' to write extracted files into the file system
1 without regard to the files already on the system; i.e., files with
1 the same names as archive members are overwritten when the archive
1 is extracted. It also causes 'tar' to extract the ownership,
1 permissions, and time stamps onto any preexisting files or
1 directories. If the name of a corresponding file name is a
1 symbolic link, the file pointed to by the symbolic link will be
1 overwritten instead of the symbolic link itself (if this is
1 possible). Moreover, special devices, empty directories and even
1 symbolic links are automatically removed if they are in the way of
1 extraction.
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1 Be careful when using the '--overwrite' option, particularly when
1 combined with the '--absolute-names' ('-P') option, as this
1 combination can change the contents, ownership or permissions of
1 any file on your system. Also, many systems do not take kindly to
1 overwriting files that are currently being executed.
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1 '--overwrite-dir'
1 Overwrite the metadata of directories when extracting files from an
1 archive, but remove other files before extracting.
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