How to pass large number of files as an argument for tar archive creation?

Question: How to pass large number of files as an argument for tar archive creation?

Answer: Using the option ‘I’  

From Solaris Man page:

-I include-file   Opens include-file containing a list of  files,  one per line, and treats

                        it  as   if   each   file   appeared separately  on  the command line. Be

                        careful of  trailing  white  spaces. Also beware of leading white spaces,

                        since, for each line in the included file,  the  entire  line (apart from

                        the newline) will be used  to  match against  the initial string of files

                         to  include

SYNTAX:  tar –cvf  archive.tar  -I  filename 

archive.tar -> your desired archive name

filename ->  pass the file name which has list of files to be archived

Example:

Listing the available files:

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#ls -ltr

total 64

-rw-r--r--   1 st39422  users        227 Aug  6 12:42 fileA

-rw-r--r--   1 st39422  users        227 Aug  6 12:43 fileB

-rw-r--r--   1 st39422  users         19 Aug  6 12:47 fileD

-rw-r--r--   1 st39422  users         19 Aug  6 12:49 fileC

Putting filenames in a file and checking the content:

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#cat > files_to_be_archived

fileA

fileB

fileC

fileD

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#cat files_to_be_archived

fileA

fileB

fileC

filed

Creating a tar archive:

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#tar -cvf multiple_files.tar  -I files_to_be_archived

a fileA 1K

a fileB 1K

a fileC 1K

a fileD 1K

Listing tar file contents:

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#tar -tvf multiple_files.tar

tar: blocksize = 10

-rw-r--r-- 48153/63002    227 Aug  6 12:42 2012 fileA

-rw-r--r-- 48153/63002    227 Aug  6 12:43 2012 fileB

-rw-r--r-- 48153/63002     19 Aug  6 12:49 2012 fileC

-rw-r--r-- 48153/63002     19 Aug  6 12:47 2012 fileD

[st39422@dios8:/home/st39422]#

NOTE:  Depending on the type and version of tar utility, option needs to be used ( -I or –L  eg: tar -cvf abc.tar -L jskfile or tar -cvf xyz.tar -I jskfile )