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<H2><A NAME="SECTION0091910000000000000000"><!--x--></A><A NAME="tarfile-objects"><!--z--></A>
<BR>
7.19.1 TarFile Objects
</H2>
<P>
The <tt class="class">TarFile</tt> 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
<tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object, see <em class="citetitle"
>TarInfo Objects</em> (section
<A href="tarinfo-objects.html#tarinfo-objects">7.19.2</A>) for details.
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span> <tt id='l2h-2704' class="class">TarFile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><big>[</big><var>name
</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>[</big><var>, fileobj</var><big>]</big><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Open an <i>(uncompressed)</i> tar archive <var>name</var>.
<var>mode</var> is either <code>'r'</code> to read from an existing archive,
<code>'a'</code> to append data to an existing file or <code>'w'</code> to create a new
file overwriting an existing one. <var>mode</var> defaults to <code>'r'</code>.
<P>
If <var>fileobj</var> is given, it is used for reading or writing data.
If it can be determined, <var>mode</var> is overridden by <var>fileobj</var>'s mode.
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
<var>fileobj</var> is not closed, when <tt class="class">TarFile</tt> is closed.
</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2705' class="method">open</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>...</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Alternative constructor. The <tt class="function">open()</tt> function on module level is
actually a shortcut to this classmethod. See section <A href="module-tarfile.html#module-tarfile">7.19</A>
for details.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2706' class="method">getmember</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>name</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object for member <var>name</var>. If <var>name</var> can
not be found in the archive, <tt class="exception">KeyError</tt> is raised.
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
If a member occurs more than once in the archive, its last
occurence is assumed to be the most up-to-date version.
</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2707' class="method">getmembers</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the members of the archive as a list of <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> objects.
The list has the same order as the members in the archive.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2708' class="method">getnames</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the members as a list of their names. It has the same order as
the list returned by <tt class="method">getmembers()</tt>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2709' class="method">list</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>verbose=True</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Print a table of contents to <code>sys.stdout</code>. If <var>verbose</var> is
<code>False</code>, only the names of the members are printed. If it is
<code>True</code>, an <code>"ls -l"</code>-like output is produced.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2710' class="method">next</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return the next member of the archive as a <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object, when
<tt class="class">TarFile</tt> is opened for reading. Return <code>None</code> if there is no
more available.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2711' class="method">extract</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>member</var><big>[</big><var>, path</var><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Extract a member from the archive to the current working directory,
using its full name. Its file information is extracted as accurately as
possible.
<var>member</var> may be a filename or a <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object.
You can specify a different directory using <var>path</var>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2712' class="method">extractfile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>member</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Extract a member from the archive as a file object.
<var>member</var> may be a filename or a <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object.
If <var>member</var> is a regular file, a file-like object is returned.
If <var>member</var> is a link, a file-like object is constructed from the
link's target.
If <var>member</var> is none of the above, <code>None</code> is returned.
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
The file-like object is read-only and provides the following methods:
<tt class="method">read()</tt>, <tt class="method">readline()</tt>, <tt class="method">readlines()</tt>,
<tt class="method">seek()</tt>, <tt class="method">tell()</tt>.
</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2713' class="method">add</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>name</var><big>[</big><var>, arcname</var><big>[</big><var>, recursive=True</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Add the file <var>name</var> to the archive. <var>name</var> may be any type
of file (directory, fifo, symbolic link, etc.).
If given, <var>arcname</var> specifies an alternative name for the file in the
archive. Directories are added recursively by default.
This can be avoided by setting <var>recursive</var> to <code>False</code>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2714' class="method">addfile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>tarinfo</var><big>[</big><var>, fileobj</var><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Add the <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object <var>tarinfo</var> to the archive.
If <var>fileobj</var> is given, <code>tarinfo.size</code> bytes are read
from it and added to the archive. You can create <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> objects
using <tt class="method">gettarinfo()</tt>.
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
On Windows platforms, <var>fileobj</var> should always be opened with mode
<code>'rb'</code> to avoid irritation about the file size.
</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2715' class="method">gettarinfo</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><big>[</big><var>name</var><big>[</big><var>, arcname
</var><big>[</big><var>, fileobj</var><big>]</big><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Create a <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt> object for either the file <var>name</var> or the
file object <var>fileobj</var> (using <code>os.fstat()</code> on its file descriptor).
You can modify some of the <tt class="class">TarInfo</tt>'s attributes before you add it
using <tt class="method">addfile()</tt>.
If given, <var>arcname</var> specifies an alternative name for the file in the
archive.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2716' class="method">close</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Close the <tt class="class">TarFile</tt>. In write-mode, two finishing zero blocks are
appended to the archive.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><b><tt id='l2h-2717' class="member">posix=True</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
If <code>True</code>, create a POSIX 1003.1-1990 compliant archive. GNU
extensions are not used, because they are not part of the POSIX standard.
This limits the length of filenames to at most 256 and linknames to 100
characters. A <tt class="exception">ValueError</tt> is raised, if a pathname exceeds this
limit.
If <code>False</code>, create a GNU tar compatible archive. It will not be POSIX
compliant, but can store pathnames of unlimited length.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><b><tt id='l2h-2718' class="member">dereference=False</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
If <code>False</code>, add symbolic and hard links to archive. If <code>True</code>,
add the content of the target files to the archive. This has no effect on
systems that do not support links.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><b><tt id='l2h-2719' class="member">ignore_zeros=False</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
If <code>False</code>, treat an empty block as the end of the archive. If
<code>True</code>, skip empty (and invalid) blocks and try to get as many
members as possible. This is only useful for concatenated or damaged
archives.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><b><tt id='l2h-2720' class="member">debug=0</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
To be set from <code>0</code>(no debug messages) up to <code>3</code>(all debug
messages). The messages are written to <code>sys.stdout</code>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><b><tt id='l2h-2721' class="member">errorlevel=0</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
If <code>0</code>, all errors are ignored when using <tt class="method">extract()</tt>.
Nevertheless, they appear as error messages in the debug output, when
debugging is enabled.
If <code>1</code>, all <i>fatal</i> errors are raised as <tt class="exception">OSError</tt>
or <tt class="exception">IOError</tt> exceptions.
If <code>2</code>, all <i>non-fatal</i> errors are raised as <tt class="exception">TarError</tt>
exceptions as well.
</dl>
<P>
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