[ Avaa Bypassed ]




Upload:

Command:

hmhc3928@3.142.195.139: ~ $

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">


<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    
    <title>12.5. tarfile — Read and write tar archive files &mdash; Python 2.7.5 documentation</title>
    
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" />
    
    <script type="text/javascript">
      var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
        URL_ROOT:    '../',
        VERSION:     '2.7.5',
        COLLAPSE_INDEX: false,
        FILE_SUFFIX: '.html',
        HAS_SOURCE:  true
      };
    </script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script>
    <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
          title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation"
          href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/>
    <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" />
    <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" />
    <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" />
    <link rel="up" title="12. Data Compression and Archiving" href="archiving.html" />
    <link rel="next" title="13. File Formats" href="fileformats.html" />
    <link rel="prev" title="12.4. zipfile — Work with ZIP archives" href="zipfile.html" />
    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" />
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script>
    
 

  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="related">
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
      <ul>
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
             accesskey="I">index</a></li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
             >modules</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="fileformats.html" title="13. File Formats"
             accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="zipfile.html" title="12.4. zipfile — Work with ZIP archives"
             accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li>
        <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt=""
                 style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
        <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> &raquo;</li>
        <li>
          <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> &raquo;
        </li>

          <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> &raquo;</li>
          <li><a href="archiving.html" accesskey="U">12. Data Compression and Archiving</a> &raquo;</li> 
      </ul>
    </div>  

    <div class="document">
      <div class="documentwrapper">
        <div class="bodywrapper">
          <div class="body">
            
  <div class="section" id="module-tarfile">
<span id="tarfile-read-and-write-tar-archive-files"></span><h1>12.5. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> &#8212; Read and write tar archive files<a class="headerlink" href="#module-tarfile" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/2.7/Lib/tarfile.py">Lib/tarfile.py</a></p>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> module makes it possible to read and write tar
archives, including those using gzip or bz2 compression.
Use the <a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt></a> module to read or write <tt class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">.zip</span></tt> files, or the
higher-level functions in <a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-operations"><em>shutil</em></a>.</p>
<p>Some facts and figures:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">reads and writes <a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html#module-gzip" title="gzip: Interfaces for gzip compression and decompression using file objects."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">gzip</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html#module-bz2" title="bz2: Interface to compression and decompression routines compatible with bzip2."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">bz2</span></tt></a> compressed archives.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">read/write support for the POSIX.1-1988 (ustar) format.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">read/write support for the GNU tar format including <em>longname</em> and <em>longlink</em>
extensions, read-only support for the <em>sparse</em> extension.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">read/write support for the POSIX.1-2001 (pax) format.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">handles directories, regular files, hardlinks, symbolic links, fifos,
character devices and block devices and is able to acquire and restore file
information like timestamp, access permissions and owner.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="tarfile.open">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">open</tt><big>(</big><em>name=None</em>, <em>mode='r'</em>, <em>fileobj=None</em>, <em>bufsize=10240</em>, <em>**kwargs</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.open" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> object for the pathname <em>name</em>. For detailed
information on <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> objects and the keyword arguments that are
allowed, see <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile-objects"><em>TarFile Objects</em></a>.</p>
<p><em>mode</em> has to be a string of the form <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'filemode[:compression]'</span></tt>, it defaults
to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span></tt>. Here is a full list of mode combinations:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="29%" />
<col width="71%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">mode</th>
<th class="head">action</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span> <span class="pre">or</span> <span class="pre">'r:*'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for reading with transparent
compression (recommended).</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r:'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for reading exclusively without
compression.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r:gz'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for reading with gzip compression.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r:bz2'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for reading with bzip2 compression.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'a'</span> <span class="pre">or</span> <span class="pre">'a:'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for appending with no compression. The
file is created if it does not exist.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w'</span> <span class="pre">or</span> <span class="pre">'w:'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for uncompressed writing.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w:gz'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for gzip compressed writing.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w:bz2'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open for bzip2 compressed writing.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Note that <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'a:gz'</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'a:bz2'</span></tt> is not possible. If <em>mode</em> is not suitable
to open a certain (compressed) file for reading, <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.ReadError" title="tarfile.ReadError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">ReadError</span></tt></a> is raised. Use
<em>mode</em> <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span></tt> to avoid this.  If a compression method is not supported,
<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.CompressionError" title="tarfile.CompressionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">CompressionError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<p>If <em>fileobj</em> is specified, it is used as an alternative to a file object opened
for <em>name</em>. It is supposed to be at position 0.</p>
<p>For special purposes, there is a second format for <em>mode</em>:
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'filemode|[compression]'</span></tt>.  <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.open" title="tarfile.open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile.open()</span></tt></a> will return a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a>
object that processes its data as a stream of blocks.  No random seeking will
be done on the file. If given, <em>fileobj</em> may be any object that has a
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt> or <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">write()</span></tt> method (depending on the <em>mode</em>). <em>bufsize</em>
specifies the blocksize and defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">20</span> <span class="pre">*</span> <span class="pre">512</span></tt> bytes. Use this variant
in combination with e.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt>, a socket file object or a tape
device. However, such a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> object is limited in that it does
not allow to be accessed randomly, see <a class="reference internal" href="#tar-examples"><em>Examples</em></a>.  The currently
possible modes:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="23%" />
<col width="77%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Mode</th>
<th class="head">Action</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r|*'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open a <em>stream</em> of tar blocks for reading
with transparent compression.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r|'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open a <em>stream</em> of uncompressed tar blocks
for reading.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r|gz'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open a gzip compressed <em>stream</em> for
reading.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r|bz2'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open a bzip2 compressed <em>stream</em> for
reading.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w|'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open an uncompressed <em>stream</em> for writing.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w|gz'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open an gzip compressed <em>stream</em> for
writing.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w|bz2'</span></tt></td>
<td>Open an bzip2 compressed <em>stream</em> for
writing.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="class">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">TarFile</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Class for reading and writing tar archives. Do not use this class directly,
better use <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.open" title="tarfile.open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile.open()</span></tt></a> instead. See <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile-objects"><em>TarFile Objects</em></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="tarfile.is_tarfile">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">is_tarfile</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.is_tarfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if <em>name</em> is a tar archive file, that the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a>
module can read.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="class">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFileCompat">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">TarFileCompat</tt><big>(</big><em>filename</em>, <em>mode='r'</em>, <em>compression=TAR_PLAIN</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFileCompat" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Class for limited access to tar archives with a <a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt></a>-like interface.
Please consult the documentation of the <a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt></a> module for more details.
<em>compression</em> must be one of the following constants:</p>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFileCompat.TAR_PLAIN">
<tt class="descname">TAR_PLAIN</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFileCompat.TAR_PLAIN" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Constant for an uncompressed tar archive.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFileCompat.TAR_GZIPPED">
<tt class="descname">TAR_GZIPPED</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFileCompat.TAR_GZIPPED" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Constant for a <a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html#module-gzip" title="gzip: Interfaces for gzip compression and decompression using file objects."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">gzip</span></tt></a> compressed tar archive.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.6: </span>The <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFileCompat" title="tarfile.TarFileCompat"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFileCompat</span></tt></a> class has been removed in Python 3.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.TarError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">TarError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Base class for all <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> exceptions.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.ReadError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">ReadError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.ReadError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Is raised when a tar archive is opened, that either cannot be handled by the
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> module or is somehow invalid.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.CompressionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">CompressionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.CompressionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Is raised when a compression method is not supported or when the data cannot be
decoded properly.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.StreamError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">StreamError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.StreamError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Is raised for the limitations that are typical for stream-like <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a>
objects.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.ExtractError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">ExtractError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.ExtractError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Is raised for <em>non-fatal</em> errors when using <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extract" title="tarfile.TarFile.extract"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile.extract()</span></tt></a>, but only if
<tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile.errorlevel</span></tt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">==</span> <span class="pre">2</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="tarfile.HeaderError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">HeaderError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.HeaderError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Is raised by <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.frombuf" title="tarfile.TarInfo.frombuf"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo.frombuf()</span></tt></a> if the buffer it gets is invalid.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<p>Each of the following constants defines a tar archive format that the
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> module is able to create. See section <a class="reference internal" href="#tar-formats"><em>Supported tar formats</em></a> for
details.</p>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">USTAR_FORMAT</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>POSIX.1-1988 (ustar) format.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.GNU_FORMAT">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">GNU_FORMAT</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.GNU_FORMAT" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>GNU tar format.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.PAX_FORMAT">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">PAX_FORMAT</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.PAX_FORMAT" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>POSIX.1-2001 (pax) format.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.DEFAULT_FORMAT">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">DEFAULT_FORMAT</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.DEFAULT_FORMAT" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The default format for creating archives. This is currently <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.GNU_FORMAT" title="tarfile.GNU_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">GNU_FORMAT</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p>The following variables are available on module level:</p>
<dl class="data">
<dt id="tarfile.ENCODING">
<tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">ENCODING</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.ENCODING" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The default character encoding i.e. the value from either
<a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#sys.getfilesystemencoding" title="sys.getfilesystemencoding"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.getfilesystemencoding()</span></tt></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#sys.getdefaultencoding" title="sys.getdefaultencoding"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.getdefaultencoding()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Documentation of the <a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#module-zipfile" title="zipfile: Read and write ZIP-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt></a> standard module.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Standard.html">GNU tar manual, Basic Tar Format</a></dt>
<dd>Documentation for tar archive files, including GNU tar extensions.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="tarfile-objects">
<span id="id1"></span><h2>12.5.1. TarFile Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> object provides an interface to a tar archive. A tar
archive is a sequence of blocks. An archive member (a stored file) is made up of
a header block followed by data blocks. It is possible to store a file in a tar
archive several times. Each archive member is represented by a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a>
object, see <a class="reference internal" href="#tarinfo-objects"><em>TarInfo Objects</em></a> for details.</p>
<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> object can be used as a context manager in a <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#with"><tt class="xref std std-keyword docutils literal"><span class="pre">with</span></tt></a>
statement. It will automatically be closed when the block is completed. Please
note that in the event of an exception an archive opened for writing will not
be finalized; only the internally used file object will be closed. See the
<a class="reference internal" href="#tar-examples"><em>Examples</em></a> section for a use case.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.7: </span>Added support for the context manager protocol.</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt>
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">TarFile</tt><big>(</big><em>name=None</em>, <em>mode='r'</em>, <em>fileobj=None</em>, <em>format=DEFAULT_FORMAT</em>, <em>tarinfo=TarInfo</em>, <em>dereference=False</em>, <em>ignore_zeros=False</em>, <em>encoding=ENCODING</em>, <em>errors=None</em>, <em>pax_headers=None</em>, <em>debug=0</em>, <em>errorlevel=0</em><big>)</big></dt>
<dd><p>All following arguments are optional and can be accessed as instance attributes
as well.</p>
<p><em>name</em> is the pathname of the archive. It can be omitted if <em>fileobj</em> is given.
In this case, the file object&#8217;s <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">name</span></tt> attribute is used if it exists.</p>
<p><em>mode</em> is either <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span></tt> to read from an existing archive, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'a'</span></tt> to append
data to an existing file or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w'</span></tt> to create a new file overwriting an existing
one.</p>
<p>If <em>fileobj</em> is given, it is used for reading or writing data. If it can be
determined, <em>mode</em> is overridden by <em>fileobj</em>&#8216;s mode. <em>fileobj</em> will be used
from position 0.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last"><em>fileobj</em> is not closed, when <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> is closed.</p>
</div>
<p><em>format</em> controls the archive format. It must be one of the constants
<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT" title="tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">USTAR_FORMAT</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.GNU_FORMAT" title="tarfile.GNU_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">GNU_FORMAT</span></tt></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.PAX_FORMAT" title="tarfile.PAX_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">PAX_FORMAT</span></tt></a> that are
defined at module level.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
<p>The <em>tarinfo</em> argument can be used to replace the default <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> class
with a different one.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
<p>If <em>dereference</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>, add symbolic and hard links to the archive. If it
is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>, add the content of the target files to the archive. This has no
effect on systems that do not support symbolic links.</p>
<p>If <em>ignore_zeros</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>, treat an empty block as the end of the archive.
If it is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>, skip empty (and invalid) blocks and try to get as many members
as possible. This is only useful for reading concatenated or damaged archives.</p>
<p><em>debug</em> can be set from <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">0</span></tt> (no debug messages) up to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">3</span></tt> (all debug
messages). The messages are written to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stderr</span></tt>.</p>
<p>If <em>errorlevel</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">0</span></tt>, all errors are ignored when using <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extract" title="tarfile.TarFile.extract"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile.extract()</span></tt></a>.
Nevertheless, they appear as error messages in the debug output, when debugging
is enabled.  If <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1</span></tt>, all <em>fatal</em> errors are raised as <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.OSError" title="exceptions.OSError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">OSError</span></tt></a> or
<a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.IOError" title="exceptions.IOError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">IOError</span></tt></a> exceptions. If <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">2</span></tt>, all <em>non-fatal</em> errors are raised as
<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarError" title="tarfile.TarError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarError</span></tt></a> exceptions as well.</p>
<p>The <em>encoding</em> and <em>errors</em> arguments control the way strings are converted to
unicode objects and vice versa. The default settings will work for most users.
See section <a class="reference internal" href="#tar-unicode"><em>Unicode issues</em></a> for in-depth information.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
<p>The <em>pax_headers</em> argument is an optional dictionary of unicode strings which
will be added as a pax global header if <em>format</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.PAX_FORMAT" title="tarfile.PAX_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">PAX_FORMAT</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.open">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">open</tt><big>(</big><em>...</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.open" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Alternative constructor. The <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.open" title="tarfile.open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile.open()</span></tt></a> function is actually a
shortcut to this classmethod.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.getmember">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">getmember</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.getmember" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object for member <em>name</em>. If <em>name</em> can not be found
in the archive, <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If a member occurs more than once in the archive, its last occurrence is assumed
to be the most up-to-date version.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.getmembers">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">getmembers</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.getmembers" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the members of the archive as a list of <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> objects. The
list has the same order as the members in the archive.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.getnames">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">getnames</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.getnames" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the members as a list of their names. It has the same order as the list
returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.getmembers" title="tarfile.TarFile.getmembers"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getmembers()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.list">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">list</tt><big>(</big><em>verbose=True</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.list" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Print a table of contents to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdout</span></tt>. If <em>verbose</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>,
only the names of the members are printed. If it is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>, output
similar to that of <strong class="program">ls -l</strong> is produced.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.next">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">next</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.next" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the next member of the archive as a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object, when
<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> is opened for reading. Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> if there is no more
available.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.extractall">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">extractall</tt><big>(</big><em>path=&quot;.&quot;</em>, <em>members=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extractall" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Extract all members from the archive to the current working directory or
directory <em>path</em>. If optional <em>members</em> is given, it must be a subset of the
list returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.getmembers" title="tarfile.TarFile.getmembers"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getmembers()</span></tt></a>. Directory information like owner,
modification time and permissions are set after all members have been extracted.
This is done to work around two problems: A directory&#8217;s modification time is
reset each time a file is created in it. And, if a directory&#8217;s permissions do
not allow writing, extracting files to it will fail.</p>
<div class="admonition warning">
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
<p class="last">Never extract archives from untrusted sources without prior inspection.
It is possible that files are created outside of <em>path</em>, e.g. members
that have absolute filenames starting with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;/&quot;</span></tt> or filenames with two
dots <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;..&quot;</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.5.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.extract">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">extract</tt><big>(</big><em>member</em>, <em>path=&quot;&quot;</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extract" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Extract a member from the archive to the current working directory, using its
full name. Its file information is extracted as accurately as possible. <em>member</em>
may be a filename or a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object. You can specify a different
directory using <em>path</em>.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">The <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extract" title="tarfile.TarFile.extract"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">extract()</span></tt></a> method does not take care of several extraction issues.
In most cases you should consider using the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extractall" title="tarfile.TarFile.extractall"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">extractall()</span></tt></a> method.</p>
</div>
<div class="admonition warning">
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
<p class="last">See the warning for <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extractall" title="tarfile.TarFile.extractall"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">extractall()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.extractfile">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">extractfile</tt><big>(</big><em>member</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extractfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Extract a member from the archive as a file object. <em>member</em> may be a filename
or a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object. If <em>member</em> is a regular file, a file-like object
is returned. If <em>member</em> is a link, a file-like object is constructed from the
link&#8217;s target. If <em>member</em> is none of the above, <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> is returned.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">The file-like object is read-only.  It provides the methods
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt>, <a class="reference internal" href="readline.html#module-readline" title="readline: GNU readline support for Python. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline()</span></tt></a>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readlines()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">seek()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">tell()</span></tt>,
and <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.close" title="tarfile.TarFile.close"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">close()</span></tt></a>, and also supports iteration over its lines.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.add">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">add</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em>, <em>arcname=None</em>, <em>recursive=True</em>, <em>exclude=None</em>, <em>filter=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.add" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Add the file <em>name</em> to the archive. <em>name</em> may be any type of file (directory,
fifo, symbolic link, etc.). If given, <em>arcname</em> specifies an alternative name
for the file in the archive. Directories are added recursively by default. This
can be avoided by setting <em>recursive</em> to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>. If <em>exclude</em> is given
it must be a function that takes one filename argument and returns a boolean
value. Depending on this value the respective file is either excluded
(<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>) or added (<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>). If <em>filter</em> is specified it must
be a function that takes a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object argument and returns the
changed <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object. If it instead returns <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a>
object will be excluded from the archive. See <a class="reference internal" href="#tar-examples"><em>Examples</em></a> for an
example.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.6: </span>Added the <em>exclude</em> parameter.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.7: </span>Added the <em>filter</em> parameter.</p>
<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.7: </span>The <em>exclude</em> parameter is deprecated, please use the <em>filter</em> parameter
instead.  For maximum portability, <em>filter</em> should be used as a keyword
argument rather than as a positional argument so that code won&#8217;t be
affected when <em>exclude</em> is ultimately removed.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.addfile">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">addfile</tt><big>(</big><em>tarinfo</em>, <em>fileobj=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.addfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Add the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object <em>tarinfo</em> to the archive. If <em>fileobj</em> is given,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarinfo.size</span></tt> bytes are read from it and added to the archive.  You can
create <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> objects using <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.gettarinfo" title="tarfile.TarFile.gettarinfo"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">gettarinfo()</span></tt></a>.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">On Windows platforms, <em>fileobj</em> should always be opened with mode <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'rb'</span></tt> to
avoid irritation about the file size.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.gettarinfo">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">gettarinfo</tt><big>(</big><em>name=None</em>, <em>arcname=None</em>, <em>fileobj=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.gettarinfo" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object for either the file <em>name</em> or the file object
<em>fileobj</em> (using <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.fstat" title="os.fstat"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.fstat()</span></tt></a> on its file descriptor).  You can modify some
of the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a>&#8216;s attributes before you add it using <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.addfile" title="tarfile.TarFile.addfile"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">addfile()</span></tt></a>.
If given, <em>arcname</em> specifies an alternative name for the file in the archive.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.close">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">close</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.close" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Close the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a>. In write mode, two finishing zero blocks are
appended to the archive.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.posix">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">posix</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.posix" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Setting this to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> is equivalent to setting the <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#format" title="format"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">format</span></tt></a>
attribute to <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT" title="tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">USTAR_FORMAT</span></tt></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a> is equivalent to
<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.GNU_FORMAT" title="tarfile.GNU_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">GNU_FORMAT</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.4: </span><em>posix</em> defaults to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.6: </span>Use the <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#format" title="format"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">format</span></tt></a> attribute instead.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarFile.pax_headers">
<tt class="descclassname">TarFile.</tt><tt class="descname">pax_headers</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarFile.pax_headers" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A dictionary containing key-value pairs of pax global headers.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="tarinfo-objects">
<span id="id2"></span><h2>12.5.2. TarInfo Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#tarinfo-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object represents one member in a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a>. Aside
from storing all required attributes of a file (like file type, size, time,
permissions, owner etc.), it provides some useful methods to determine its type.
It does <em>not</em> contain the file&#8217;s data itself.</p>
<p><a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> objects are returned by <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a>&#8216;s methods
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getmember()</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getmembers()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">gettarinfo()</span></tt>.</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">tarfile.</tt><tt class="descname">TarInfo</tt><big>(</big><em>name=&quot;&quot;</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.frombuf">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">frombuf</tt><big>(</big><em>buf</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.frombuf" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create and return a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object from string buffer <em>buf</em>.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6: </span>Raises <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.HeaderError" title="tarfile.HeaderError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">HeaderError</span></tt></a> if the buffer is invalid..</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.fromtarfile">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">fromtarfile</tt><big>(</big><em>tarfile</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.fromtarfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Read the next member from the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> object <em>tarfile</em> and return it as
a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.tobuf">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">tobuf</tt><big>(</big><em>format=DEFAULT_FORMAT</em>, <em>encoding=ENCODING</em>, <em>errors='strict'</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.tobuf" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create a string buffer from a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object. For information on the
arguments see the constructor of the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> class.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.6: </span>The arguments were added.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt> object has the following public data attributes:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.name">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">name</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.name" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Name of the archive member.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.size">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">size</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.size" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Size in bytes.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.mtime">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">mtime</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.mtime" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Time of last modification.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.mode">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">mode</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.mode" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Permission bits.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.type">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">type</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.type" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>File type.  <em>type</em> is usually one of these constants: <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">REGTYPE</span></tt>,
<tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">AREGTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">LNKTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">SYMTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">DIRTYPE</span></tt>,
<tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">FIFOTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">CONTTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">CHRTYPE</span></tt>, <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">BLKTYPE</span></tt>,
<tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">GNUTYPE_SPARSE</span></tt>.  To determine the type of a <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object
more conveniently, use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_*()</span></tt> methods below.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.linkname">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">linkname</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.linkname" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Name of the target file name, which is only present in <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> objects
of type <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">LNKTYPE</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">SYMTYPE</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.uid">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">uid</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.uid" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>User ID of the user who originally stored this member.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.gid">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">gid</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.gid" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Group ID of the user who originally stored this member.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.uname">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">uname</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.uname" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>User name.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.gname">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">gname</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.gname" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Group name.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.pax_headers">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">pax_headers</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.pax_headers" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A dictionary containing key-value pairs of an associated pax extended header.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.6.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo" title="tarfile.TarInfo"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarInfo</span></tt></a> object also provides some convenient query methods:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isfile">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isfile</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isfile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if the <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Tarinfo</span></tt> object is a regular file.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isreg">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isreg</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isreg" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Same as <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isfile" title="tarfile.TarInfo.isfile"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">isfile()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isdir">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isdir</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isdir" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a directory.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.issym">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">issym</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.issym" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a symbolic link.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.islnk">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">islnk</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.islnk" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a hard link.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.ischr">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">ischr</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.ischr" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a character device.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isblk">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isblk</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isblk" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a block device.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isfifo">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isfifo</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isfifo" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is a FIFO.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="tarfile.TarInfo.isdev">
<tt class="descclassname">TarInfo.</tt><tt class="descname">isdev</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#tarfile.TarInfo.isdev" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a> if it is one of character device, block device or FIFO.</p>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="examples">
<span id="tar-examples"></span><h2>12.5.3. Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#examples" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>How to extract an entire tar archive to the current working directory:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>
<span class="n">tar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar.gz&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">extractall</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>How to extract a subset of a tar archive with <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.extractall" title="tarfile.TarFile.extractall"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile.extractall()</span></tt></a> using
a generator function instead of a list:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>

<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">py_files</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">members</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">members</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">splitext</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">&quot;.py&quot;</span><span class="p">:</span>
            <span class="k">yield</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span>

<span class="n">tar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar.gz&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">extractall</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">members</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">py_files</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">tar</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>How to create an uncompressed tar archive from a list of filenames:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>
<span class="n">tar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;w&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;foo&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;bar&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;quux&quot;</span><span class="p">]:</span>
    <span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The same example using the <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#with"><tt class="xref std std-keyword docutils literal"><span class="pre">with</span></tt></a> statement:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;w&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">tar</span><span class="p">:</span>
    <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;foo&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;bar&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;quux&quot;</span><span class="p">]:</span>
        <span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>How to read a gzip compressed tar archive and display some member information:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>
<span class="n">tar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar.gz&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;r:gz&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">tar</span><span class="p">:</span>
    <span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;is&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">size</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;bytes in size and is&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span>
    <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isreg</span><span class="p">():</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;a regular file.&quot;</span>
    <span class="k">elif</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">isdir</span><span class="p">():</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;a directory.&quot;</span>
    <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">&quot;something else.&quot;</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>How to create an archive and reset the user information using the <em>filter</em>
parameter in <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile.add" title="tarfile.TarFile.add"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile.add()</span></tt></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">tarfile</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">reset</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">uid</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">gid</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span>
    <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">uname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">gname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&quot;root&quot;</span>
    <span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">tarinfo</span>
<span class="n">tar</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">tarfile</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;sample.tar.gz&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&quot;w:gz&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;foo&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">filter</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">reset</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">tar</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="supported-tar-formats">
<span id="tar-formats"></span><h2>12.5.4. Supported tar formats<a class="headerlink" href="#supported-tar-formats" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>There are three tar formats that can be created with the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> module:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">The POSIX.1-1988 ustar format (<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT" title="tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">USTAR_FORMAT</span></tt></a>). It supports filenames
up to a length of at best 256 characters and linknames up to 100 characters. The
maximum file size is 8 gigabytes. This is an old and limited but widely
supported format.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The GNU tar format (<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.GNU_FORMAT" title="tarfile.GNU_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">GNU_FORMAT</span></tt></a>). It supports long filenames and
linknames, files bigger than 8 gigabytes and sparse files. It is the de facto
standard on GNU/Linux systems. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-tarfile" title="tarfile: Read and write tar-format archive files."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt></a> fully supports the GNU tar
extensions for long names, sparse file support is read-only.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The POSIX.1-2001 pax format (<a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.PAX_FORMAT" title="tarfile.PAX_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">PAX_FORMAT</span></tt></a>). It is the most flexible
format with virtually no limits. It supports long filenames and linknames, large
files and stores pathnames in a portable way. However, not all tar
implementations today are able to handle pax archives properly.</p>
<p>The <em>pax</em> format is an extension to the existing <em>ustar</em> format. It uses extra
headers for information that cannot be stored otherwise. There are two flavours
of pax headers: Extended headers only affect the subsequent file header, global
headers are valid for the complete archive and affect all following files. All
the data in a pax header is encoded in <em>UTF-8</em> for portability reasons.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are some more variants of the tar format which can be read, but not
created:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>The ancient V7 format. This is the first tar format from Unix Seventh Edition,
storing only regular files and directories. Names must not be longer than 100
characters, there is no user/group name information. Some archives have
miscalculated header checksums in case of fields with non-ASCII characters.</li>
<li>The SunOS tar extended format. This format is a variant of the POSIX.1-2001
pax format, but is not compatible.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="unicode-issues">
<span id="tar-unicode"></span><h2>12.5.5. Unicode issues<a class="headerlink" href="#unicode-issues" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The tar format was originally conceived to make backups on tape drives with the
main focus on preserving file system information. Nowadays tar archives are
commonly used for file distribution and exchanging archives over networks. One
problem of the original format (that all other formats are merely variants of)
is that there is no concept of supporting different character encodings. For
example, an ordinary tar archive created on a <em>UTF-8</em> system cannot be read
correctly on a <em>Latin-1</em> system if it contains non-ASCII characters. Names (i.e.
filenames, linknames, user/group names) containing these characters will appear
damaged.  Unfortunately, there is no way to autodetect the encoding of an
archive.</p>
<p>The pax format was designed to solve this problem. It stores non-ASCII names
using the universal character encoding <em>UTF-8</em>. When a pax archive is read,
these <em>UTF-8</em> names are converted to the encoding of the local file system.</p>
<p>The details of unicode conversion are controlled by the <em>encoding</em> and <em>errors</em>
keyword arguments of the <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.TarFile" title="tarfile.TarFile"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">TarFile</span></tt></a> class.</p>
<p>The default value for <em>encoding</em> is the local character encoding. It is deduced
from <a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#sys.getfilesystemencoding" title="sys.getfilesystemencoding"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.getfilesystemencoding()</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#sys.getdefaultencoding" title="sys.getdefaultencoding"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.getdefaultencoding()</span></tt></a>. In
read mode, <em>encoding</em> is used exclusively to convert unicode names from a pax
archive to strings in the local character encoding. In write mode, the use of
<em>encoding</em> depends on the chosen archive format. In case of <a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile.PAX_FORMAT" title="tarfile.PAX_FORMAT"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">PAX_FORMAT</span></tt></a>,
input names that contain non-ASCII characters need to be decoded before being
stored as <em>UTF-8</em> strings. The other formats do not make use of <em>encoding</em>
unless unicode objects are used as input names. These are converted to 8-bit
character strings before they are added to the archive.</p>
<p>The <em>errors</em> argument defines how characters are treated that cannot be
converted to or from <em>encoding</em>. Possible values are listed in section
<a class="reference internal" href="codecs.html#codec-base-classes"><em>Codec Base Classes</em></a>. In read mode, there is an additional scheme
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'utf-8'</span></tt> which means that bad characters are replaced by their <em>UTF-8</em>
representation. This is the default scheme. In write mode the default value for
<em>errors</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'strict'</span></tt> to ensure that name information is not altered
unnoticed.</p>
</div>
</div>


          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="sphinxsidebar">
        <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
  <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
  <ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">12.5. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></tt> &#8212; Read and write tar archive files</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#tarfile-objects">12.5.1. TarFile Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#tarinfo-objects">12.5.2. TarInfo Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">12.5.3. Examples</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#supported-tar-formats">12.5.4. Supported tar formats</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#unicode-issues">12.5.5. Unicode issues</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

  <h4>Previous topic</h4>
  <p class="topless"><a href="zipfile.html"
                        title="previous chapter">12.4. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></tt> &#8212; Work with ZIP archives</a></p>
  <h4>Next topic</h4>
  <p class="topless"><a href="fileformats.html"
                        title="next chapter">13. File Formats</a></p>
<h3>This Page</h3>
<ul class="this-page-menu">
  <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li>
  <li><a href="../_sources/library/tarfile.txt"
         rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li>
</ul>

<div id="searchbox" style="display: none">
  <h3>Quick search</h3>
    <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get">
      <input type="text" name="q" />
      <input type="submit" value="Go" />
      <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
      <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
    </form>
    <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%">
    Enter search terms or a module, class or function name.
    </p>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="clearer"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="related">
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
      <ul>
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
             >index</a></li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
             >modules</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="fileformats.html" title="13. File Formats"
             >next</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="zipfile.html" title="12.4. zipfile — Work with ZIP archives"
             >previous</a> |</li>
        <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt=""
                 style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
        <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> &raquo;</li>
        <li>
          <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> &raquo;
        </li>

          <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> &raquo;</li>
          <li><a href="archiving.html" >12. Data Compression and Archiving</a> &raquo;</li> 
      </ul>
    </div>
    <div class="footer">
    &copy; <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 1990-2019, Python Software Foundation.
    <br />
    The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation.
    <a href="http://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a>
    <br />
    Last updated on Jul 03, 2019.
    <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>?
    <br />
    Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.1.3.
    </div>

  </body>
</html>

Filemanager

Name Type Size Permission Actions
2to3.html File 49.27 KB 0644
__builtin__.html File 10.26 KB 0644
__future__.html File 13.79 KB 0644
__main__.html File 7.05 KB 0644
_winreg.html File 59.21 KB 0644
abc.html File 23.9 KB 0644
aepack.html File 13.16 KB 0644
aetools.html File 14.91 KB 0644
aetypes.html File 18.88 KB 0644
aifc.html File 22.4 KB 0644
al.html File 17.34 KB 0644
allos.html File 33.72 KB 0644
anydbm.html File 16.33 KB 0644
archiving.html File 9.26 KB 0644
argparse.html File 237.62 KB 0644
array.html File 29.29 KB 0644
ast.html File 34.98 KB 0644
asynchat.html File 31.43 KB 0644
asyncore.html File 36.51 KB 0644
atexit.html File 16.8 KB 0644
audioop.html File 31.36 KB 0644
autogil.html File 8.19 KB 0644
base64.html File 19.67 KB 0644
basehttpserver.html File 34.04 KB 0644
bastion.html File 11.04 KB 0644
bdb.html File 36.68 KB 0644
binascii.html File 20.67 KB 0644
binhex.html File 10.58 KB 0644
bisect.html File 23.24 KB 0644
bsddb.html File 26.43 KB 0644
bz2.html File 26.08 KB 0644
calendar.html File 37.79 KB 0644
carbon.html File 48.94 KB 0644
cd.html File 27.96 KB 0644
cgi.html File 49.92 KB 0644
cgihttpserver.html File 13.1 KB 0644
cgitb.html File 11.41 KB 0644
chunk.html File 14.66 KB 0644
cmath.html File 25.63 KB 0644
cmd.html File 26.09 KB 0644
code.html File 24.58 KB 0644
codecs.html File 100.64 KB 0644
codeop.html File 14.84 KB 0644
collections.html File 133.96 KB 0644
colorpicker.html File 7.52 KB 0644
colorsys.html File 11.04 KB 0644
commands.html File 14.36 KB 0644
compileall.html File 16.83 KB 0644
compiler.html File 67.75 KB 0644
configparser.html File 62.13 KB 0644
constants.html File 12.83 KB 0644
contextlib.html File 19.39 KB 0644
cookie.html File 39.07 KB 0644
cookielib.html File 83.82 KB 0644
copy.html File 12.19 KB 0644
copy_reg.html File 13.76 KB 0644
crypt.html File 10.04 KB 0644
crypto.html File 7.59 KB 0644
csv.html File 67.37 KB 0644
ctypes.html File 238.78 KB 0644
curses.ascii.html File 22.29 KB 0644
curses.html File 146.63 KB 0644
curses.panel.html File 14.39 KB 0644
custominterp.html File 7.62 KB 0644
datatypes.html File 16.84 KB 0644
datetime.html File 226.59 KB 0644
dbhash.html File 15.48 KB 0644
dbm.html File 12.07 KB 0644
debug.html File 10.15 KB 0644
decimal.html File 194.44 KB 0644
development.html File 14.17 KB 0644
difflib.html File 84.83 KB 0644
dircache.html File 11.41 KB 0644
dis.html File 69.95 KB 0644
distutils.html File 8.05 KB 0644
dl.html File 16.33 KB 0644
doctest.html File 165.54 KB 0644
docxmlrpcserver.html File 16.43 KB 0644
dumbdbm.html File 14.02 KB 0644
dummy_thread.html File 9.43 KB 0644
dummy_threading.html File 8.37 KB 0644
easydialogs.html File 30.55 KB 0644
email-examples.html File 45.65 KB 0644
email.charset.html File 26.8 KB 0644
email.encoders.html File 11.86 KB 0644
email.errors.html File 15.77 KB 0644
email.generator.html File 20.77 KB 0644
email.header.html File 26.92 KB 0644
email.html File 44.24 KB 0644
email.iterators.html File 11.52 KB 0644
email.message.html File 63.16 KB 0644
email.mime.html File 27.93 KB 0644
email.parser.html File 30.45 KB 0644
email.util.html File 24.46 KB 0644
errno.html File 37.99 KB 0644
exceptions.html File 56.13 KB 0644
fcntl.html File 22.67 KB 0644
filecmp.html File 22.3 KB 0644
fileformats.html File 9.14 KB 0644
fileinput.html File 24.28 KB 0644
filesys.html File 10.2 KB 0644
fl.html File 49.92 KB 0644
fm.html File 11.91 KB 0644
fnmatch.html File 14.58 KB 0644
formatter.html File 34.06 KB 0644
fpectl.html File 16.01 KB 0644
fpformat.html File 10.59 KB 0644
fractions.html File 22.61 KB 0644
framework.html File 33.34 KB 0644
frameworks.html File 7.14 KB 0644
ftplib.html File 43.99 KB 0644
functions.html File 183.14 KB 0644
functools.html File 27.17 KB 0644
future_builtins.html File 13.04 KB 0644
gc.html File 25.75 KB 0644
gdbm.html File 15.96 KB 0644
gensuitemodule.html File 11.51 KB 0644
getopt.html File 23.66 KB 0644
getpass.html File 10.65 KB 0644
gettext.html File 78.76 KB 0644
gl.html File 22.09 KB 0644
glob.html File 13.26 KB 0644
grp.html File 10.49 KB 0644
gzip.html File 18.99 KB 0644
hashlib.html File 18.2 KB 0644
heapq.html File 31.61 KB 0644
hmac.html File 10.46 KB 0644
hotshot.html File 18.65 KB 0644
htmllib.html File 25.32 KB 0644
htmlparser.html File 39.11 KB 0644
httplib.html File 62.95 KB 0644
i18n.html File 9.52 KB 0644
ic.html File 17.17 KB 0644
idle.html File 20.9 KB 0644
imageop.html File 14.76 KB 0644
imaplib.html File 51.99 KB 0644
imgfile.html File 11.71 KB 0644
imghdr.html File 11.3 KB 0644
imp.html File 34.34 KB 0644
importlib.html File 8.26 KB 0644
imputil.html File 31.81 KB 0644
index.html File 72.78 KB 0644
inspect.html File 50.71 KB 0644
internet.html File 24.87 KB 0644
intro.html File 8.93 KB 0644
io.html File 98.13 KB 0644
ipc.html File 13.41 KB 0644
itertools.html File 115.91 KB 0644
jpeg.html File 12.74 KB 0644
json.html File 67.04 KB 0644
keyword.html File 7.68 KB 0644
language.html File 11.03 KB 0644
linecache.html File 10.59 KB 0644
locale.html File 55.14 KB 0644
logging.config.html File 63.36 KB 0644
logging.handlers.html File 69.64 KB 0644
logging.html File 95.64 KB 0644
mac.html File 21.79 KB 0644
macos.html File 14.76 KB 0644
macosa.html File 12.96 KB 0644
macostools.html File 15.52 KB 0644
macpath.html File 7.76 KB 0644
mailbox.html File 156.75 KB 0644
mailcap.html File 13.21 KB 0644
markup.html File 18.77 KB 0644
marshal.html File 17.98 KB 0644
math.html File 39.24 KB 0644
md5.html File 13.97 KB 0644
mhlib.html File 21.54 KB 0644
mimetools.html File 19.25 KB 0644
mimetypes.html File 28.39 KB 0644
mimewriter.html File 15.02 KB 0644
mimify.html File 13.36 KB 0644
miniaeframe.html File 12.2 KB 0644
misc.html File 6.87 KB 0644
mm.html File 9.03 KB 0644
mmap.html File 28.36 KB 0644
modulefinder.html File 15.31 KB 0644
modules.html File 8.46 KB 0644
msilib.html File 52.43 KB 0644
msvcrt.html File 19.37 KB 0644
multifile.html File 24.3 KB 0644
multiprocessing.html File 365.71 KB 0644
mutex.html File 11.23 KB 0644
netdata.html File 16.98 KB 0644
netrc.html File 12.3 KB 0644
new.html File 12.12 KB 0644
nis.html File 10.64 KB 0644
nntplib.html File 41.92 KB 0644
numbers.html File 37.75 KB 0644
numeric.html File 13.55 KB 0644
operator.html File 82 KB 0644
optparse.html File 222.56 KB 0644
os.html File 214.25 KB 0644
os.path.html File 38.34 KB 0644
ossaudiodev.html File 41.5 KB 0644
othergui.html File 9.08 KB 0644
parser.html File 39.36 KB 0644
pdb.html File 33.96 KB 0644
persistence.html File 14.87 KB 0644
pickle.html File 102.27 KB 0644
pickletools.html File 10.63 KB 0644
pipes.html File 18.01 KB 0644
pkgutil.html File 25.11 KB 0644
platform.html File 28.37 KB 0644
plistlib.html File 17.03 KB 0644
popen2.html File 25.43 KB 0644
poplib.html File 22.32 KB 0644
posix.html File 14.41 KB 0644
posixfile.html File 19.76 KB 0644
pprint.html File 29.92 KB 0644
profile.html File 63.56 KB 0644
pty.html File 9.48 KB 0644
pwd.html File 11.43 KB 0644
py_compile.html File 11.12 KB 0644
pyclbr.html File 14.71 KB 0644
pydoc.html File 11.48 KB 0644
pyexpat.html File 71.53 KB 0644
python.html File 12.27 KB 0644
queue.html File 24.22 KB 0644
quopri.html File 11.9 KB 0644
random.html File 37.83 KB 0644
re.html File 134.74 KB 0644
readline.html File 28.24 KB 0644
repr.html File 20.43 KB 0644
resource.html File 26.48 KB 0644
restricted.html File 11.65 KB 0644
rexec.html File 37.41 KB 0644
rfc822.html File 42.22 KB 0644
rlcompleter.html File 13.51 KB 0644
robotparser.html File 12.27 KB 0644
runpy.html File 19.34 KB 0644
sched.html File 18.54 KB 0644
scrolledtext.html File 9.32 KB 0644
select.html File 39.67 KB 0644
sets.html File 36.92 KB 0644
sgi.html File 9.71 KB 0644
sgmllib.html File 30.77 KB 0644
sha.html File 12.09 KB 0644
shelve.html File 27.02 KB 0644
shlex.html File 32.1 KB 0644
shutil.html File 40.22 KB 0644
signal.html File 31.14 KB 0644
simplehttpserver.html File 18.41 KB 0644
simplexmlrpcserver.html File 31.39 KB 0644
site.html File 23.64 KB 0644
smtpd.html File 12.46 KB 0644
smtplib.html File 42.13 KB 0644
sndhdr.html File 10.02 KB 0644
socket.html File 106.34 KB 0644
socketserver.html File 59.83 KB 0644
someos.html File 15.11 KB 0644
spwd.html File 10.33 KB 0644
sqlite3.html File 139.5 KB 0644
ssl.html File 65.62 KB 0644
stat.html File 32.31 KB 0644
statvfs.html File 10.6 KB 0644
stdtypes.html File 260.4 KB 0644
string.html File 106.65 KB 0644
stringio.html File 18.81 KB 0644
stringprep.html File 16.13 KB 0644
strings.html File 14.93 KB 0644
struct.html File 40.88 KB 0644
subprocess.html File 84.91 KB 0644
sun.html File 6.84 KB 0644
sunau.html File 27.1 KB 0644
sunaudio.html File 17.79 KB 0644
symbol.html File 7.66 KB 0644
symtable.html File 22.94 KB 0644
sys.html File 98.7 KB 0644
sysconfig.html File 23.84 KB 0644
syslog.html File 17.92 KB 0644
tabnanny.html File 10.63 KB 0644
tarfile.html File 78.68 KB 0644
telnetlib.html File 25.48 KB 0644
tempfile.html File 29.42 KB 0644
termios.html File 16.01 KB 0644
test.html File 52.62 KB 0644
textwrap.html File 27.25 KB 0644
thread.html File 20.47 KB 0644
threading.html File 76.69 KB 0644
time.html File 56.93 KB 0644
timeit.html File 36.27 KB 0644
tix.html File 46.96 KB 0644
tk.html File 23.64 KB 0644
tkinter.html File 67.67 KB 0644
token.html File 19.62 KB 0644
tokenize.html File 18.45 KB 0644
trace.html File 25.54 KB 0644
traceback.html File 33.44 KB 0644
ttk.html File 101.75 KB 0644
tty.html File 9.06 KB 0644
turtle.html File 211.74 KB 0644
types.html File 27.59 KB 0644
undoc.html File 23.16 KB 0644
unicodedata.html File 18.55 KB 0644
unittest.html File 202.85 KB 0644
unix.html File 10.55 KB 0644
urllib.html File 58.68 KB 0644
urllib2.html File 100.58 KB 0644
urlparse.html File 40.41 KB 0644
user.html File 11.83 KB 0644
userdict.html File 29.73 KB 0644
uu.html File 11.03 KB 0644
uuid.html File 28.19 KB 0644
warnings.html File 46.6 KB 0644
wave.html File 22.22 KB 0644
weakref.html File 36.52 KB 0644
webbrowser.html File 23.07 KB 0644
whichdb.html File 8.85 KB 0644
windows.html File 9.33 KB 0644
winsound.html File 18.75 KB 0644
wsgiref.html File 81.04 KB 0644
xdrlib.html File 29.94 KB 0644
xml.dom.html File 89.04 KB 0644
xml.dom.minidom.html File 40.42 KB 0644
xml.dom.pulldom.html File 12.71 KB 0644
xml.etree.elementtree.html File 93.22 KB 0644
xml.html File 16.49 KB 0644
xml.sax.handler.html File 38.63 KB 0644
xml.sax.html File 20.22 KB 0644
xml.sax.reader.html File 39.09 KB 0644
xml.sax.utils.html File 14.26 KB 0644
xmlrpclib.html File 60.79 KB 0644
zipfile.html File 53.14 KB 0644
zipimport.html File 20.42 KB 0644
zlib.html File 25.46 KB 0644