Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook - Third Edition

Deleting files from the archive

The -delete option removes files from an archive:

    $ tar -f archive.tar --delete file1 file2 ..

Alternatively,

    $ tar --delete --file archive.tar [FILE LIST]

The next example demonstrates deleting a file:

    $ tar -tf archive.tar
    filea
    fileb
    filec
    $ tar --delete --file archive.tar filea
    $ tar -tf archive.tar
    fileb
    filec