| Python 3.6.5 Documentation > "tarfile" — Read and write tar archive files
"tarfile" — Read and write tar archive files
********************************************
**Source code:** Lib/tarfile.py
======================================================================
The "tarfile" module makes it possible to read and write tar archives,
including those using gzip, bz2 and lzma compression. Use the
"zipfile" module to read or write ".zip" files, or the higher-level
functions in shutil.
Some facts and figures:
* reads and writes "gzip", "bz2" and "lzma" compressed archives if
the respective modules are available.
* read/write support for the POSIX.1-1988 (ustar) format.
* read/write support for the GNU tar format including *longname* and
*longlink* extensions, read-only support for all variants of the
*sparse* extension including restoration of sparse files.
* read/write support for the POSIX.1-2001 (pax) format.
* 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.
Changed in version 3.3: Added support for "lzma" compression.
tarfile.open(name=None, mode='r', fileobj=None, bufsize=10240, **kwargs)
Return a "TarFile" object for the pathname *name*. For detailed
information on "TarFile" objects and the keyword arguments that are
allowed, see TarFile Objects.
*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' or '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. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'r:xz'" | Open for reading with lzma compression. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'x'" or "'x:'" | Create a tarfile exclusively without |
| | compression. Raise an "FileExistsError" |
| | exception if it already exists. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'x:gz'" | Create a tarfile with gzip compression. Raise |
| | an "FileExistsError" exception if it already |
| | exists. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'x:bz2'" | Create a tarfile with bzip2 compression. |
| | Raise an "FileExistsError" exception if it |
| | already exists. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'x:xz'" | Create a tarfile with lzma compression. Raise |
| | an "FileExistsError" exception if it already |
| | exists. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'a' or 'a:'" | Open for appending with no compression. The |
| | file is created if it does not exist. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'w' or 'w:'" | Open for uncompressed writing. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'w:gz'" | Open for gzip compressed writing. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'w:bz2'" | Open for bzip2 compressed writing. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| "'w:xz'" | Open for lzma compressed writing. |
+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
Note that "'a:gz'", "'a:bz2'" or "'a:xz'" 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 in binary mode for *name*. It is supposed to be at
position 0.
For modes "'w:gz'", "'r:gz'", "'w:bz2'", "'r:bz2'", "'x:gz'",
"'x:bz2'", "tarfile.open()" accepts the keyword argument
*compresslevel* (default "9") to specify the compression level of
the file.
For special purposes, there is a second format for *mode*:
"'filemode|[compression]'". "tarfile.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 random
access, see Examples. The currently possible modes:
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Mode | Action |
+===============+==============================================+
| "'r|*'" | Open a *stream* of tar blocks for reading |
| | with transparent compression. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'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. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'r|xz'" | Open an lzma compressed *stream* for |
| | reading. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'w|'" | Open an uncompressed *stream* for writing. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'w|gz'" | Open a gzip compressed *stream* for writing. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'w|bz2'" | Open a bzip2 compressed *stream* for |
| | writing. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
| "'w|xz'" | Open an lzma compressed *stream* for |
| | writing. |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+
Changed in version 3.5: The "'x'" (exclusive creation) mode was
added.
Changed in version 3.6: The *name* parameter accepts a *path-like
object*.
class tarfile.TarFile
Class for reading and writing tar archives. Do not use this class
directly: use "tarfile.open()" instead. See TarFile Objects.
tarfile.is_tarfile(name)
Return "True" if *name* is a tar archive file, that the "tarfile"
module can read.
The "tarfile" module defines the following exceptions:
exception tarfile.TarError
Base class for all "tarfile" exceptions.
exception tarfile.ReadError
Is raised when a tar archive is opened, that either cannot be
handled by the "tarfile" module or is somehow invalid.
exception tarfile.CompressionError
Is raised when a compression method is not supported or when the
data cannot be decoded properly.
exception tarfile.StreamError
Is raised for the limitations that are typical for stream-like
"TarFile" objects.
exception tarfile.ExtractError
Is raised for *non-fatal* errors when using "TarFile.extract()",
but only if "TarFile.errorlevel""== 2".
exception tarfile.HeaderError
Is raised by "TarInfo.frombuf()" if the buffer it gets is invalid.
The following constants are available at the module level:
tarfile.ENCODING
The default character encoding: "'utf-8'" on Windows, the value
returned by "sys.getfilesystemencoding()" otherwise.
Each of the following constants defines a tar archive format that the
"tarfile" module is able to create. See section Supported tar formats
for details.
tarfile.USTAR_FORMAT
POSIX.1-1988 (ustar) format.
tarfile.GNU_FORMAT
GNU tar format.
tarfile.PAX_FORMAT
POSIX.1-2001 (pax) format.
tarfile.DEFAULT_FORMAT
The default format for creating archives. This is currently
"GNU_FORMAT".
See also:
Module "zipfile"
Documentation of the "zipfile" standard module.
Archiving operations
Documentation of the higher-level archiving facilities provided
by the standard "shutil" module.
GNU tar manual, Basic Tar Format
Documentation for tar archive files, including GNU tar
extensions.
TarFile Objects
===============
The "TarFile" 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 "TarInfo" object, see TarInfo Objects for details.
A "TarFile" object can be used as a context manager in a "with"
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 Examples section for a use case.
New in version 3.2: Added support for the context management protocol.
class tarfile.TarFile(name=None, mode='r', fileobj=None, format=DEFAULT_FORMAT, tarinfo=TarInfo, dereference=False, ignore_zeros=False, encoding=ENCODING, errors='surrogateescape', pax_headers=None, debug=0, errorlevel=0)
All following arguments are optional and can be accessed as
instance attributes as well.
*name* is the pathname of the archive. *name* may be a *path-like
object*. It can be omitted if *fileobj* is given. In this case, the
file object’s "name" attribute is used if it exists.
*mode* is either "'r'" to read from an existing archive, "'a'" to
append data to an existing file, "'w'" to create a new file
overwriting an existing one, or "'x'" to create a new file only if
it does not already exist.
If *fileobj* is given, it is used for reading or writing data. If
it can be determined, *mode* is overridden by *fileobj*’s mode.
*fileobj* will be used from position 0.
Note: *fileobj* is not closed, when "TarFile" is closed.
*format* controls the archive format. It must be one of the
constants "USTAR_FORMAT", "GNU_FORMAT" or "PAX_FORMAT" that are
defined at module level.
The *tarinfo* argument can be used to replace the default "TarInfo"
class with a different one.
If *dereference* is "False", add symbolic and hard links to the
archive. If it is "True", add the content of the target files to
the archive. This has no effect on systems that do not support
symbolic links.
If *ignore_zeros* is "False", treat an empty block as the end of
the archive. If it is "True", skip empty (and invalid) blocks and
try to get as many members as possible. This is only useful for
reading concatenated or damaged archives.
*debug* can be set from "0" (no debug messages) up to "3" (all
debug messages). The messages are written to "sys.stderr".
If *errorlevel* is "0", all errors are ignored when using
"TarFile.extract()". Nevertheless, they appear as error messages in
the debug output, when debugging is enabled. If "1", all *fatal*
errors are raised as "OSError" exceptions. If "2", all *non-fatal*
errors are raised as "TarError" exceptions as well.
The *encoding* and *errors* arguments define the character encoding
to be used for reading or writing the archive and how conversion
errors are going to be handled. The default settings will work for
most users. See section Unicode issues for in-depth information.
The *pax_headers* argument is an optional dictionary of strings
which will be added as a pax global header if *format* is
"PAX_FORMAT".
Changed in version 3.2: Use "'surrogateescape'" as the default for
the *errors* argument.
Changed in version 3.5: The "'x'" (exclusive creation) mode was
added.
Changed in version 3.6: The *name* parameter accepts a *path-like
object*.
classmethod TarFile.open(...)
Alternative constructor. The "tarfile.open()" function is actually
a shortcut to this classmethod.
TarFile.getmember(name)
Return a "TarInfo" object for member *name*. If *name* can not be
found in the archive, "KeyError" is raised.
Note: If a member occurs more than once in the archive, its last
occurrence is assumed to be the most up-to-date version.
TarFile.getmembers()
Return the members of the archive as a list of "TarInfo" objects.
The list has the same order as the members in the archive.
TarFile.getnames()
Return the members as a list of their names. It has the same order
as the list returned by "getmembers()".
TarFile.list(verbose=True, *, members=None)
Print a table of contents to "sys.stdout". If *verbose* is "False",
only the names of the members are printed. If it is "True", output
similar to that of **ls -l** is produced. If optional *members* is
given, it must be a subset of the list returned by "getmembers()".
Changed in version 3.5: Added the *members* parameter.
TarFile.next()
Return the next member of the archive as a "TarInfo" object, when
"TarFile" is opened for reading. Return "None" if there is no more
available.
TarFile.extractall(path=".", members=None, *, numeric_owner=False)
Extract all members from the archive to the current working
directory or directory *path*. If optional *members* is given, it
must be a subset of the list returned by "getmembers()". 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’s modification time is reset each time a
file is created in it. And, if a directory’s permissions do not
allow writing, extracting files to it will fail.
If *numeric_owner* is "True", the uid and gid numbers from the
tarfile are used to set the owner/group for the extracted files.
Otherwise, the named values from the tarfile are used.
Warning: Never extract archives from untrusted sources without
prior inspection. It is possible that files are created outside
of *path*, e.g. members that have absolute filenames starting
with ""/"" or filenames with two dots "".."".
Changed in version 3.5: Added the *numeric_owner* parameter.
Changed in version 3.6: The *path* parameter accepts a *path-like
object*.
TarFile.extract(member, path="", set_attrs=True, *, numeric_owner=False)
Extract a member from the archive to the current working directory,
using its full name. Its file information is extracted as
accurately as possible. *member* may be a filename or a "TarInfo"
object. You can specify a different directory using *path*. *path*
may be a *path-like object*. File attributes (owner, mtime, mode)
are set unless *set_attrs* is false.
If *numeric_owner* is "True", the uid and gid numbers from the
tarfile are used to set the owner/group for the extracted files.
Otherwise, the named values from the tarfile are used.
Note: The "extract()" method does not take care of several
extraction issues. In most cases you should consider using the
"extractall()" method.
Warning: See the warning for "extractall()".
Changed in version 3.2: Added the *set_attrs* parameter.
Changed in version 3.5: Added the *numeric_owner* parameter.
Changed in version 3.6: The *path* parameter accepts a *path-like
object*.
TarFile.extractfile(member)
Extract a member from the archive as a file object. *member* may be
a filename or a "TarInfo" object. If *member* is a regular file or
a link, an "io.BufferedReader" object is returned. Otherwise,
"None" is returned.
Changed in version 3.3: Return an "io.BufferedReader" object.
TarFile.add(name, arcname=None, recursive=True, exclude=None, *, filter=None)
Add the file *name* to the archive. *name* may be any type of file
(directory, fifo, symbolic link, etc.). If given, *arcname*
specifies an alternative name for the file in the archive.
Directories are added recursively by default. This can be avoided
by setting *recursive* to "False". If *exclude* 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 ("True") or added ("False"). If *filter* is
specified it must be a keyword argument. It should be a function
that takes a "TarInfo" object argument and returns the changed
"TarInfo" object. If it instead returns "None" the "TarInfo" object
will be excluded from the archive. See Examples for an example.
Changed in version 3.2: Added the *filter* parameter.
Deprecated since version 3.2: The *exclude* parameter is
deprecated, please use the *filter* parameter instead.
TarFile.addfile(tarinfo, fileobj=None)
Add the "TarInfo" object *tarinfo* to the archive. If *fileobj* is
given, it should be a *binary file*, and "tarinfo.size" bytes are
read from it and added to the archive. You can create "TarInfo"
objects directly, or by using "gettarinfo()".
TarFile.gettarinfo(name=None, arcname=None, fileobj=None)
Create a "TarInfo" object from the result of "os.stat()" or
equivalent on an existing file. The file is either named by
*name*, or specified as a *file object* *fileobj* with a file
descriptor. *name* may be a *path-like object*. If given,
*arcname* specifies an alternative name for the file in the
archive, otherwise, the name is taken from *fileobj*’s "name"
attribute, or the *name* argument. The name should be a text
string.
You can modify some of the "TarInfo"’s attributes before you add it
using "addfile()". If the file object is not an ordinary file
object positioned at the beginning of the file, attributes such as
"size" may need modifying. This is the case for objects such as
"GzipFile". The "name" may also be modified, in which case
*arcname* could be a dummy string.
Changed in version 3.6: The *name* parameter accepts a *path-like
object*.
TarFile.close()
Close the "TarFile". In write mode, two finishing zero blocks are
appended to the archive.
TarFile.pax_headers
A dictionary containing key-value pairs of pax global headers.
TarInfo Objects
===============
A "TarInfo" object represents one member in a "TarFile". 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 *not* contain the file’s data itself.
"TarInfo" objects are returned by "TarFile"’s methods "getmember()",
"getmembers()" and "gettarinfo()".
class tarfile.TarInfo(name="")
Create a "TarInfo" object.
classmethod TarInfo.frombuf(buf, encoding, errors)
Create and return a "TarInfo" object from string buffer *buf*.
Raises "HeaderError" if the buffer is invalid.
classmethod TarInfo.fromtarfile(tarfile)
Read the next member from the "TarFile" object *tarfile* and return
it as a "TarInfo" object.
TarInfo.tobuf(format=DEFAULT_FORMAT, encoding=ENCODING, errors='surrogateescape')
Create a string buffer from a "TarInfo" object. For information on
the arguments see the constructor of the "TarFile" class.
Changed in version 3.2: Use "'surrogateescape'" as the default for
the *errors* argument.
A "TarInfo" object has the following public data attributes:
TarInfo.name
Name of the archive member.
TarInfo.size
Size in bytes.
TarInfo.mtime
Time of last modification.
TarInfo.mode
Permission bits.
TarInfo.type
File type. *type* is usually one of these constants: "REGTYPE",
"AREGTYPE", "LNKTYPE", "SYMTYPE", "DIRTYPE", "FIFOTYPE",
"CONTTYPE", "CHRTYPE", "BLKTYPE", "GNUTYPE_SPARSE". To determine
the type of a "TarInfo" object more conveniently, use the "is*()"
methods below.
TarInfo.linkname
Name of the target file name, which is only present in "TarInfo"
objects of type "LNKTYPE" and "SYMTYPE".
TarInfo.uid
User ID of the user who originally stored this member.
TarInfo.gid
Group ID of the user who originally stored this member.
TarInfo.uname
User name.
TarInfo.gname
Group name.
TarInfo.pax_headers
A dictionary containing key-value pairs of an associated pax
extended header.
A "TarInfo" object also provides some convenient query methods:
TarInfo.isfile()
Return "True" if the "Tarinfo" object is a regular file.
TarInfo.isreg()
Same as "isfile()".
TarInfo.isdir()
Return "True" if it is a directory.
TarInfo.issym()
Return "True" if it is a symbolic link.
TarInfo.islnk()
Return "True" if it is a hard link.
TarInfo.ischr()
Return "True" if it is a character device.
TarInfo.isblk()
Return "True" if it is a block device.
TarInfo.isfifo()
Return "True" if it is a FIFO.
TarInfo.isdev()
Return "True" if it is one of character device, block device or
FIFO.
Command-Line Interface
======================
New in version 3.4.
The "tarfile" module provides a simple command-line interface to
interact with tar archives.
If you want to create a new tar archive, specify its name after the
"-c" option and then list the filename(s) that should be included:
$ python -m tarfile -c monty.tar spam.txt eggs.txt
Passing a directory is also acceptable:
$ python -m tarfile -c monty.tar life-of-brian_1979/
If you want to extract a tar archive into the current directory, use
the "-e" option:
$ python -m tarfile -e monty.tar
You can also extract a tar archive into a different directory by
passing the directory’s name:
$ python -m tarfile -e monty.tar other-dir/
For a list of the files in a tar archive, use the "-l" option:
$ python -m tarfile -l monty.tar
Command-line options
--------------------
-l <tarfile>
--list <tarfile>
List files in a tarfile.
-c <tarfile> <source1> ... <sourceN>
--create <tarfile> <source1> ... <sourceN>
Create tarfile from source files.
-e <tarfile> [<output_dir>]
--extract <tarfile> [<output_dir>]
Extract tarfile into the current directory if *output_dir* is not
specified.
-t <tarfile>
--test <tarfile>
Test whether the tarfile is valid or not.
-v, --verbose
Verbose output.
Examples
========
How to extract an entire tar archive to the current working directory:
import tarfile
tar = tarfile.open("sample.tar.gz")
tar.extractall()
tar.close()
How to extract a subset of a tar archive with "TarFile.extractall()"
using a generator function instead of a list:
import os
import tarfile
def py_files(members):
for tarinfo in members:
if os.path.splitext(tarinfo.name)[1] == ".py":
yield tarinfo
tar = tarfile.open("sample.tar.gz")
tar.extractall(members=py_files(tar))
tar.close()
How to create an uncompressed tar archive from a list of filenames:
import tarfile
tar = tarfile.open("sample.tar", "w")
for name in ["foo", "bar", "quux"]:
tar.add(name)
tar.close()
The same example using the "with" statement:
import tarfile
with tarfile.open("sample.tar", "w") as tar:
for name in ["foo", "bar", "quux"]:
tar.add(name)
How to read a gzip compressed tar archive and display some member
information:
import tarfile
tar = tarfile.open("sample.tar.gz", "r:gz")
for tarinfo in tar:
print(tarinfo.name, "is", tarinfo.size, "bytes in size and is", end="")
if tarinfo.isreg():
print("a regular file.")
elif tarinfo.isdir():
print("a directory.")
else:
print("something else.")
tar.close()
How to create an archive and reset the user information using the
*filter* parameter in "TarFile.add()":
import tarfile
def reset(tarinfo):
tarinfo.uid = tarinfo.gid = 0
tarinfo.uname = tarinfo.gname = "root"
return tarinfo
tar = tarfile.open("sample.tar.gz", "w:gz")
tar.add("foo", filter=reset)
tar.close()
Supported tar formats
=====================
There are three tar formats that can be created with the "tarfile"
module:
* The POSIX.1-1988 ustar format ("USTAR_FORMAT"). It supports
filenames up to a length of at best 256 characters and linknames up
to 100 characters. The maximum file size is 8 GiB. This is an old
and limited but widely supported format.
* The GNU tar format ("GNU_FORMAT"). It supports long filenames and
linknames, files bigger than 8 GiB and sparse files. It is the de
facto standard on GNU/Linux systems. "tarfile" fully supports the
GNU tar extensions for long names, sparse file support is read-only.
* The POSIX.1-2001 pax format ("PAX_FORMAT"). 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.
The *pax* format is an extension to the existing *ustar* 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 *UTF-8* for portability reasons.
There are some more variants of the tar format which can be read, but
not created:
* 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.
* The SunOS tar extended format. This format is a variant of the
POSIX.1-2001 pax format, but is not compatible.
Unicode issues
==============
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 (which is
the basis of all other formats) is that there is no concept of
supporting different character encodings. For example, an ordinary tar
archive created on a *UTF-8* system cannot be read correctly on a
*Latin-1* system if it contains non-*ASCII* characters. Textual
metadata (like filenames, linknames, user/group names) will appear
damaged. Unfortunately, there is no way to autodetect the encoding of
an archive. The pax format was designed to solve this problem. It
stores non-ASCII metadata using the universal character encoding
*UTF-8*.
The details of character conversion in "tarfile" are controlled by the
*encoding* and *errors* keyword arguments of the "TarFile" class.
*encoding* defines the character encoding to use for the metadata in
the archive. The default value is "sys.getfilesystemencoding()" or
"'ascii'" as a fallback. Depending on whether the archive is read or
written, the metadata must be either decoded or encoded. If *encoding*
is not set appropriately, this conversion may fail.
The *errors* argument defines how characters are treated that cannot
be converted. Possible values are listed in section Error Handlers.
The default scheme is "'surrogateescape'" which Python also uses for
its file system calls, see File Names, Command Line Arguments, and
Environment Variables.
In case of "PAX_FORMAT" archives, *encoding* is generally not needed
because all the metadata is stored using *UTF-8*. *encoding* is only
used in the rare cases when binary pax headers are decoded or when
strings with surrogate characters are stored.
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