This is GNU tar, the tape archiving program.
choose one of the following:
-A, --catenate,
    --concatenate	append tar files to an archive
-c, --create		create a new archive
-d, --diff,
    --compare		find differences between archive and file system
--delete		delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)
-r, --append		append files to the end of an archive
-t, --list		list the contents of an archive
-u, --update		only append files that are newer than copy in archive
-x, --extract,
    --get		extract files from an archive
Other options:
--atime-preserve	don't change access times on dumped files
-b, --block-size N	block size of Nx512 bytes (default N=20)
-B, --read-full-blocks	reblock as we read (for reading 4.2BSD pipes)
-C, --directory DIR	change to directory DIR
--checkpoint		print directory names while reading the archive
-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F	use archive file or device F (default tar.out)
--force-local		archive file is local even if has a colon
-F, --info-script F
    --new-volume-script F run script at end of each tape (implies -M)
-G, --incremental	create/list/extract old GNU-format incremental backup
-g, --listed-incremental F create/list/extract new GNU-format incremental backup
-h, --dereference	don't dump symlinks; dump the files they point to
-i, --ignore-zeros	ignore blocks of zeros in archive (normally mean EOF)
--ignore-failed-read	don't exit with non-zero status on unreadable files
-k, --keep-old-files	keep existing files; don't overwrite them from archive
-K, --starting-file F	begin at file F in the archive
-l, --one-file-system	stay in local file system when creating an archive
-L, --tape-length N	change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes
-m, --modification-time	don't extract file modified time
-M, --multi-volume	create/list/extract multi-volume archive
-N, --after-date DATE,
    --newer DATE	only store files newer than DATE
-o, --old-archive,
    --portability	write a V7 format archive, rather than ANSI format
-O, --to-stdout		extract files to standard output
-p, --same-permissions,
    --preserve-permissions extract all protection information
-P, --absolute-paths	don't strip leading `/'s from file names
--preserve		like -p -s
-R, --record-number	show record number within archive with each message
--remove-files		remove files after adding them to the archive
-s, --same-order,
    --preserve-order	list of names to extract is sorted to match archive
--same-owner		create extracted files with the same ownership 
-S, --sparse		handle sparse files efficiently
-T, --files-from F	get names to extract or create from file F
--null			-T reads null-terminated names, disable -C
--totals		print total bytes written with --create
-v, --verbose		verbosely list files processed
-V, --label NAME	create archive with volume name NAME
--version		print tar program version number
-w, --interactive,
    --confirmation	ask for confirmation for every action
-W, --verify		attempt to verify the archive after writing it
--exclude FILE		exclude file FILE
-X, --exclude-from FILE	exclude files listed in FILE
-Z, --compress,
    --uncompress      	filter the archive through compress
-z, --gzip,
    --ungzip		filter the archive through gzip
--use-compress-program PROG
			filter the archive through PROG (which must accept -d)
--block-compress	block the output of compression program for tapes
-[0-7][lmh]		specify drive and density
