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:
1 
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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