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[–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Tar is as old as IT, that's why it's syntax is a bit special.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    tar -xf is not really special combining short options isn't uncommon.

    Where tar is nonstandard is that you can leave out the -, tar xf is actually how POSIX specifies it. And we've kinda come full circle on that one with many modern utilities using a command syntax, you can read tar xf as "tar extract file" just as you can read git pull as, well, "git pull".

    If you want to see a standard command with truly non-standard syntax have a look at dd.

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