metatar.1.wip

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.TH "metatar" 1 "15 May 2017" "" ""
.SH NAME
metatar \- edit metadata in tar files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B metatar
.sp
metatar -s tarfile yamlfile
.sp
metatar -a tarfile yamlfile newtarfile
.SH DESCRIPTION
Extract and apply metadata to tarfiles.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-v or \-\-version
displays the current version number
.TP
.B \-h or \-\-help
displays brief usage information
.TP
.B \-s or \-\-save
extracts metadata given an input tar filename and an output yaml filename
.TP
.B \-a or \-\-apply
applies metadata to a new tar file given an input tar filename and an input yaml filename
.TP
.B \-l or \-\-list
lists the contents of a tar file
.TP
.B \-y or \-\-yaml
output YAML metadata to standard out given an input tar filename
.TP
.B \-f or \-\-force
use together with \-\-save or \-\-apply to overwrite existing files
.TP
.B \-g or \-\-generate
convert YAML metadata to a new tar file, without using a tar file as the basis
.TP
.B \-m or \-\-merge
merge two YAML files into a new YAML file. The second overrides the first.
.TP
.B \-c or \-\-cpio
use together with -apply to create a cpio file instead of a tar file
.TP
.PP
.SH "WHY"
.sp
MetaTAR can extract metadata from a tar archive and save it as a YAML file.
.sp
The YAML file can then be edited and applied to the original tar archive, in order to produce a new tar archive with changed metadata.
.sp
This can be useful for creating filesystem images with device files without having to use fakeroot and mknod.
.sp
It's also useful for checking in data about file owners and permissions into git. It makes it easier to compare changes and see who changed what.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR tar (1)
.SH BUGS
Only unknown bugs so far. Bugs can be reported at https://github.com/xyproto/metatar/issues.
.SH VERSION
1.4
.SH AUTHOR
.B metatar
was written by Alexander F Rødseth <rodseth@gmail.com>