tar: assumptions
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1 2.1 Assumptions this Tutorial Makes
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1 This chapter is paced to allow beginners to learn about 'tar' slowly.
1 At the same time, we will try to cover all the basic aspects of these
1 three operations. In order to accomplish both of these tasks, we have
1 made certain assumptions about your knowledge before reading this
1 manual, and the hardware you will be using:
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1 * Before you start to work through this tutorial, you should
1 understand what the terms "archive" and "archive member" mean
1 (⇒Definitions). In addition, you should understand
1 something about how Unix-type operating systems work, and you
1 should know how to use some basic utilities. For example, you
1 should know how to create, list, copy, rename, edit, and delete
1 files and directories; how to change between directories; and how
1 to figure out where you are in the file system. You should have
1 some basic understanding of directory structure and how files are
1 named according to which directory they are in. You should
1 understand concepts such as standard output and standard input,
1 what various definitions of the term 'argument' mean, and the
1 differences between relative and absolute file names.
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1 * This manual assumes that you are working from your own home
1 directory (unless we state otherwise). In this tutorial, you will
1 create a directory to practice 'tar' commands in. When we show
1 file names, we will assume that those names are relative to your
1 home directory. For example, my home directory is
1 '/home/fsf/melissa'. All of my examples are in a subdirectory of
1 the directory named by that file name; the subdirectory is called
1 'practice'.
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1 * In general, we show examples of archives which exist on (or can be
1 written to, or worked with from) a directory on a hard disk. In
1 most cases, you could write those archives to, or work with them on
1 any other device, such as a tape drive. However, some of the later
1 examples in the tutorial and next chapter will not work on tape
1 drives. Additionally, working with tapes is much more complicated
1 than working with hard disks. For these reasons, the tutorial does
1 not cover working with tape drives. ⇒Media, for complete
1 information on using 'tar' archives with tape drives.
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