borg-import-tar(1)

📦
version 1.4.5 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

okay so this is borg-import-tar — the Borg command that creates a backup archive from a tarball 💖 it's from the borg backup tool family, and the manpage lives at borg-import-tar(1), iykyk.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

borg [common options] import-tar [options] ARCHIVE TARFILE

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bestie, this command creates a backup archive from a tarball. that's the whole vibe 💅

When you give '-' as a path, Borg will read a tar stream from standard input. no cap.

By default (--tar-filter=auto) Borg will detect whether the file is compressed based on its file extension and pipe the file through an appropriate filter 🌸:

  • .tar.gz or .tgz: gzip -d
  • .tar.bz2 or .tbz: bzip2 -d
  • .tar.xz or .txz: xz -d
  • .tar.zstd or .tar.zst: zstd -d
  • .tar.lz4: lz4 -d

Alternatively, you can explicitly specify a --tar-filter program. It should read compressed data from stdin and output an uncompressed tar stream on stdout. that's the deal, periodt.

Most documentation of borg create applies here. Note that this command does not support excluding files. 🫶

import-tar is a lossy conversion: BSD flags, ACLs, extended attributes (xattrs), atime and ctime are not exported. Timestamp resolution is limited to whole seconds, not the nanosecond resolution otherwise supported by Borg. so yeah, some detail is getting left on the table, no biggie but don't be surprised 😭

A --sparse option (as found in borg create) is not supported. 💀

import-tar reads POSIX.1-1988 (ustar), POSIX.1-2001 (pax), GNU tar, UNIX V7 tar and SunOS tar with extended attributes. she's versatile, she's iconic 👑

To import multiple tarballs into a single archive, they can be simply concatenated (e.g. using "cat") into a single file, and imported with an --ignore-zeros option to skip through the stop markers between them. slay 🌈

💜 OPTIONS 💜

See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands.

🌸 arguments 🌸

  • ARCHIVE — name of archive to create (must be also a valid directory name)
  • TARFILE — input tar file. "-" to read from stdin instead.

🎀 options 🎀

  • --tar-filter — filter program to pipe data through
  • -s, --stats — print statistics for the created archive
  • --quick-stats — print only archive statistics, skipping repository-wide statistics
  • --list — output verbose list of items (files, dirs, ...)
  • --filter STATUSCHARS — only display items with the given status characters
  • --json — output stats as JSON (implies --stats)
  • --ignore-zeros — ignore zero-filled blocks in the input tarball

👑 Archive options 👑

  • --comment COMMENT — add a comment text to the archive
  • --timestamp TIMESTAMP — manually specify the archive creation date/time (UTC, yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss format). alternatively, give a reference file/directory.
  • -c SECONDS, --checkpoint-interval SECONDS — write checkpoint every SECONDS seconds (Default: 1800)
  • --chunker-params PARAMS — specify the chunker parameters (ALGO, CHUNK_MIN_EXP, CHUNK_MAX_EXP, HASH_MASK_BITS, HASH_WINDOW_SIZE). default: buzhash,19,23,21,4095
  • -C COMPRESSION, --compression COMPRESSION — select compression algorithm, see the output of the "borg help compression" command for details.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

borg-common(1)

💖 Author 💖

The Borg Collective

okay that's the whole page, go forth and import those tarballs bestie 🧚 this was borg-import-tar(1) from the borg backup tool, dated 2026-07-18 — mwah, take care of her 💜✨

📦 where this page comes from