Limitations of TAR

[dhamodharan_1]

Hi team ,

I want to know the limitations of TAR command
like maximum number of files in a tar archive.

Thanks in Advance
Dhamodharan.S

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

I don't think that there is a limit on the files that can be on a tarfile. Some OS (or tar versions) cannot create tar files bigger of certain size, this is not the Linux case. One true limitation of tar is that cannot save SELinux attributes, also won't save ACL in files, tha's why you should consider using start, which also is faster.

[Sung Oh]

Hello,

Tar has limitation of following list from GNU tar website.

-maximum length of a file name 99 characters
-maximum length of a symbolic link 99 characters
-special files can not be stored such as block and character devices, fifos etc.
-Maximum value of user or group IS 2097151

More on tar
http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/tar.html

I hope this helps,

Sung