Creating a TAR File

tFile = tarfile.open("files.tar", 'w')
files = os.listdir(".")
for f in files:
    tFile.add(f)

The tarfile module, included with Python, provides a set of easy-to-use methods to create and manipulate TAR files. The open(filename [, mode [, fileobj [, bufsize]]]) method must be called with the write mode set to create a new TAR. Table 4.2 shows the different modes available when opening a TAR file.

Table 4.2. File Modes for Python's tarfile Module

Mode	Description
r	(Default) Opens a TAR file for reading. If the file is compressed, it will be decompressed.
r:	Opens a TAR file for reading with no compression.
w or w:	Opens a TAR file for writing with no compression.
a or a:	Opens a TAR file for appending with no compression.
r:gz	Opens a TAR file for reading with gzip compression.
w:gz	Opens a TAR file for writing with gzip compression.
r:bz2	Opens a TAR file for reading with bzip2 compression.
w:bz2	Opens a TAR file for writing with bzip2 compression.

Once the TAR file has been opened in write mode, files can be added to it using the add ( name [,arcname [, recursive]]) method. The add method adds the file or directory specified in name to the archive. The optional arcname argument enables you to specify what name the file should have inside the archive. The recursive argument accepts a Boolean true or false to determine whether or not to recursively add the contents of directories to the archive.

Note

To open a TAR file for sequential access only, replace the : character in the mode with a character. The append mode is not available for the sequential access option.

import os
import tarfile

#Create Tar file
tFile = tarfile.open("files.tar", 'w')

#Add directory contents to tar file
files = os.listdir(".")
for f in files:
    tFile.add(f)

#List files in tar
for f in tFile.getnames():
    print "Added %s" % f

tFile.close()

tar_file.py

Added add_zip.py
Added del_tree.py
Added dir_tree.py
Added extract.txt
Added extract_tar.py
Added file_lines.py
Added find_file.py
Added get_zip.py
Added input.txt
Added open_file.py
Added output.old
Added read_file.py
Added read_line.py
Added read_words.py
Added ren_file.py
Added tar_file.py
Added write_file.py

Output from tar_file.py code

Extracting a File from a TAR File

tFile = tarfile.open("files.tar", 'r')
tFile.extract(f, extractPath)

The tarfile module includes the exTRact (file [, path ]) method to extract files specified by the file argument and place them in the location specified by the path argument. If no path is specified, the current working directory becomes the destination.

The example in extract_tar.py opens the TAR file created in the previous phrase and extracts only the Python files to a directory called /bin/py .

import os
import tarfile

extractPath = "/bin/py"

#Open Tar file
tFile = tarfile.open("files.tar", 'r')

#Extract py files in tar
for f in tFile.getnames():
    if f.endswith("py"):
        print "Extracting %s" % f
        tFile.extract(f, extractPath)
    else:
        print "%s is not a Python file." % f

tFile.close()

extract_tar.py

Extracting add_zip.py
Extracting del_tree.py
Extracting dir_tree.py
extract.txt is not a Python file.
Extracting extract_tar.py
Extracting file_lines.py
Extracting find_file.py
Extracting get_zip.py
input.txt is not a Python file.
Extracting open_file.py
output.old is not a Python file.
Extracting read_file.py
Extracting read_line.py
Extracting read_words.py
Extracting ren_file.py
Extracting tar_file.py
Extracting write_file.py

Output from extract_tar.py code