---
name: "shtool-tarball"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "shtool"
version: "2.0.8-10"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/shtool-tarball"
---

# shtool-tarball(1)

GNU shtool command for rolling standardized tarballs

## NAME

shtool-tarball - GNU shtool command for rolling standardized tarballs

## SYNOPSIS

**shtool tarball** \[**-t**\|**--trace**\] \[**-v**\|**--verbose**\] \[**-o**\|**--output** *tarball*\] \[**-c**\|**--compress** *prog*\] \[**-d**\|**--directory** *directory*\] \[**-u**\|**--user** *user*\] \[**-g**\|**--group** *group*\] \[**-e**\|**--exclude** *pattern*\] *path* \[*path* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

This command is for rolling input files under *path* into a distribution tarballs which can be extracted by [**tar**(1)](/tar/1.md).

The four important aspects of good open source software tarballs are: (1) unpack into a single top-level directory, (2) top-level directory corresponds to the tarball filename, (3) tarball files should be sorted and (4) arbitrary names for file owner and group.

## OPTIONS

The following command line options are available.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Display some processing information.

- **-t**, **--trace**

  Enable the output of the essential shell commands which are executed.

- **-o**, **--output** *tarball*

  Output tarball to file *tarball*.

- **-c**, **--compress** *prog*

  Pipe resulting tarball through compression program *prog*.

- **-d**, **--directory** *directory*

  Sets the top-level directory into which the tarball unpacks. By default it is *tarball* without the trailing `".tar.*"` extension.

- **-u**, **--user** *user*

  The user (owner) of files and directories in the tarball to *user*.

- **-g**, **--group** *group*

  The group of files and directories in the tarball to *group*.

- **-e**, **--exclude** *pattern*

  Exclude files and directories matching comma-separated list of regex *pattern* from the tarball. Directories are expanded before the filtering takes place. The default filter pattern is "`"CVS,\\.cvsignore,\\.svn,\\.[oa]\$"`".

## EXAMPLE

```
 #   Makefile.in
 dist:
     ...
     V=`shtool version -d short ...`; \
     shtool tarball -o foobar-$$V.tar.gz -c 'gzip -9' \
                    -u bar -g gnu -e 'CVS,\.cvsignore' .
```

## HISTORY

The **GNU shtool** **tarball** command was originally written by Ralf S. Engelschall \<rse@engelschall.com\> in 1999 for **GNU shtool**.

## SEE ALSO

[**shtool**(1)](/shtool/1.md), [**tar**(1)](/tar/1.md), [**compress**(1)](/compress/1.md).