With other operations, informs @command{tar} that the archive is in
incremental format. @xref{Incremental Dumps}.
+@opsummary{lzip}
+@item --lzip
+
+This option tells @command{tar} to read or write archives through
+@command{lzip}. @xref{gzip}.
+
@opsummary{lzma}
@item --lzma
GID of the file owner.
@end table
-In addition to these variables, @env{TAR_VERSION} contains the
+Additionally, the following variables contain information about
+tar mode and the archive being processed:
+
+@table @env
+@vrindex TAR_VERSION, to-command environment
+@item TAR_VERSION
@GNUTAR{} version number.
+@vrindex TAR_ARCHIVE, to-command environment
+@item TAR_ARCHIVE
+The name of the archive @command{tar} is processing.
+
+@vrindex TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR, to-command environment
+@item TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
+Current blocking factor (@pxref{Blocking}.
+
+@vrindex TAR_VOLUME, to-command environment
+@item TAR_VOLUME
+Ordinal number of the volume @command{tar} is processing.
+
+@vrindex TAR_FORMAT, to-command environment
+@item TAR_FORMAT
+Format of the archive being processed. @xref{Formats}, for a complete
+list of archive format names.
+@end table
+
If @var{command} exits with a non-0 status, @command{tar} will print
an error message similar to the following:
@cindex gzip
@cindex bzip2
+@cindex lzip
@cindex lzma
@cindex lzop
@cindex compress
@GNUTAR{} is able to create and read compressed archives. It supports
-@command{gzip}, @command{bzip2}, @command{lzma} and @command{lzop} compression
-programs. For backward compatibility, it also supports
-@command{compress} command, although we strongly recommend against
-using it, because it is by far less effective than other compression
-programs@footnote{It also had patent problems in the past.}.
+a wide variety of compression programs, namely: @command{gzip},
+@command{bzip2}, @command{lzip}, @command{lzma}, @command{lzop},
+@command{xz} and traditional @command{compress}. The latter is
+supported mostly for backward compatibility, and we recommend
+against using it, because it is by far less effective than the other
+compression programs@footnote{It also had patent problems in the past.}.
Creating a compressed archive is simple: you just specify a
@dfn{compression option} along with the usual archive creation
commands. The compression option is @option{-z} (@option{--gzip}) to
create a @command{gzip} compressed archive, @option{-j}
(@option{--bzip2}) to create a @command{bzip2} compressed archive,
+@option{--lzip} to create an @asis{lzip} compressed archive,
@option{-J} (@option{--xz}) to create an @asis{XZ} archive,
@option{--lzma} to create an @asis{LZMA} compressed
archive, @option{--lzop} to create an @asis{LSOP} archive, and
@item @samp{.tz2} @tab @command{bzip2}
@item @samp{.tbz2} @tab @command{bzip2}
@item @samp{.tbz} @tab @command{bzip2}
+@item @samp{.lz} @tab @command{lzip}
@item @samp{.lzma} @tab @command{lzma}
@item @samp{.tlz} @tab @command{lzma}
@item @samp{.lzo} @tab @command{lzop}
@itemx --bzip2
Filter the archive through @code{bzip2}. Otherwise like @option{--gzip}.
+@opindex lzip
+@item --lzip
+Filter the archive through @command{lzip}. Otherwise like @option{--gzip}.
+
@opindex lzma
@item --lzma
Filter the archive through @command{lzma}. Otherwise like @option{--gzip}.