Re: input/output redirection with tar

[Bob Proulx]

e-letter wrote:
> Eric Blake wrote:
> > Common convention among many unix tools is to treat '-' as a synonym for
> > stdin.  I don't know if 'info tar' explicitly calls this out, though
> > that would be a question for bug-tar.
> 
> Couldn't find explanation in 'man tar' and after a few years, have yet
> to master navigation within 'info' documents! However, thanks again
> anyway. :)

The Unix man pages do.  See the -f option here for one example.

  
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tar&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.2-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html

tar has had a long history using - for stdin and stdout.

The tar info pages say:

  http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/files.html#SEC106

     If you give a single dash as a file name for `--files-from', (i.e.,
  you specify either `--files-from=-' or `-T -'), then the file names
  are read from standard input.

Bob