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New in version 2.3.
The tarfile module makes it possible to read and create tar archives.
Some facts and figures:
- reads and writes gzip and bzip2 compressed archives.
- creates POSIX 1003.1-1990 compliant or GNU tar compatible archives.
- reads GNU tar extensions longname, longlink and
sparse.
- stores pathnames of unlimited length using GNU tar extensions.
- 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.
- can handle tape devices.
| open( |
[name[, mode
[, fileobj[, bufsize]]]]) |
-
Return a TarFile object for the pathname name.
For detailed information on TarFile objects,
see TarFile Objects (section 7.19.1).
mode has to be a string of the form 'filemode[:compression]',
it defaults to 'r'. Here is a full list of mode combinations:
| mode |
action |
'r' |
Open for reading with transparent compression (recommended). |
'r:' |
Open for reading exclusively without compression. |
'r:gz' |
Open for reading with gzip compression. |
'r:bz2' |
Open for reading with bzip2 compression. |
'a' or 'a:' |
Open for appending with no compression. |
'w' or 'w:' |
Open for uncompressed writing. |
'w:gz' |
Open for gzip compressed writing. |
'w:bz2' |
Open for bzip2 compressed writing. |
Note that 'a:gz' or 'a:bz2' is not possible.
If mode is not suitable to open a certain (compressed) file for
reading, ReadError is raised. Use mode 'r' to
avoid this. If a compression method is not supported,
CompressionError is raised.
If fileobj is specified, it is used as an alternative to
a file object opened for name.
For special purposes, there is a second format for mode:
'filemode|[compression]'. open() will return a
TarFile object that processes its data as a stream of
blocks. No random seeking will be done on the file. If given,
fileobj may be any object that has a read() or
write() method (depending on the mode).
bufsize specifies the blocksize and defaults to 20 *
512 bytes. Use this variant in combination with
e.g. sys.stdin, a socket file object or a tape device.
However, such a TarFile object is limited in that it does
not allow to be accessed randomly, see ``Examples''
(section 7.19.3). The currently possible modes:
| Mode |
Action |
'r|' |
Open a stream of uncompressed tar blocks for reading. |
'r|gz' |
Open a gzip compressed stream for reading. |
'r|bz2' |
Open a bzip2 compressed stream for reading. |
'w|' |
Open an uncompressed stream for writing. |
'w|gz' |
Open an gzip compressed stream for writing. |
'w|bz2' |
Open an bzip2 compressed stream for writing. |
- class TarFile
-
Class for reading and writing tar archives. Do not use this
class directly, better use open() instead.
See ``TarFile Objects'' (section 7.19.1).
-
Return True if name is a tar archive file, that
the tarfile module can read.
| class TarFileCompat( |
filename[, mode[,
compression]]) |
-
Class for limited access to tar archives with a
zipfile-like interface. Please consult the
documentation of the zipfile module for more details.
compression must be one of the following constants:
- TAR_PLAIN
-
Constant for an uncompressed tar archive.
- TAR_GZIPPED
-
Constant for a gzip compressed tar archive.
- exception TarError
-
Base class for all tarfile exceptions.
- exception ReadError
-
Is raised when a tar archive is opened, that either cannot be handled by
the tarfile module or is somehow invalid.
- exception CompressionError
-
Is raised when a compression method is not supported or when the data
cannot be decoded properly.
- exception StreamError
-
Is raised for the limitations that are typical for stream-like
TarFile objects.
- exception ExtractError
-
Is raised for non-fatal errors when using extract(), but
only if TarFile.errorlevel
== 2.
Release 2.4.5, documentation updated on 18 October 2006.
See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.
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