Tar DataFlex Reference Documentation

Tar

Current Version: 10.0.0

API for creating and extracting TAR archives. Also supports creating and extracting .tar.gz (.tgz), .tar.bz2, and .tar.Z (compressed TAR archives, also known as compressed tarball archives). Can read/write the following TAR formats: (1) GNU tar 1.13.x format, (2) PAX -- POSIX 1003.1-2001 format, (3) USTAR -- POSIX 1003.1-1988 format.

Object Creation

// (Dataflex programs use the 32-bit Chilkat ActiveX)
Handle hoTar
Get Create(RefClass(cComChilkatTar)) to hoTar

Properties

CaptureXmlListing
Function ComCaptureXmlListing Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComCaptureXmlListing Boolean value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

If True, then untar methods, such as Untar, UntarGz, UntarBz2, and UntarZ, will also capture an XML listing of the contents in the XmlListing property. The format of the XML contained in XmlListing is identical to what is returned by the ListXml method. The default value is False.

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Charset
Function ComCharset Returns String
Procedure Set ComCharset String value

Character encoding to be used when interpreting filenames within .tar archives for untar operations. The default is "utf-8", and this is typically not changed. (The WriteTar methods always uses utf-8 to store filenames within the TAR archive.)

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DebugLogFilePath
Function ComDebugLogFilePath Returns String
Procedure Set ComDebugLogFilePath String value

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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DirMode
Function ComDirMode Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComDirMode Integer value

The directory permissions to used in WriteTar* methods. The default is octal 0755. This is the value to be stored in the "mode" field of each TAR header for a directory entries.

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DirPrefix
Function ComDirPrefix Returns String
Procedure Set ComDirPrefix String value

A prefix to be added to each file's path within the TAR archive as it is being created. For example, if this property is set to the string "subdir1", then "subdir1/" will be prepended to each file's path within the TAR.

Note: This property does not apply to files added using the AddFile2 method, which directly specifies the path-in-tar.

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FileMode
Function ComFileMode Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComFileMode Integer value

The file permissions to used in WriteTar* methods. The default is octal 0644. This is the value to be stored in the "mode" field of each TAR header for a file entries.

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GroupId
Function ComGroupId Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComGroupId Integer value

The default numerical GID to be stored in each TAR header when writing TAR archives. The default value is 1000.

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GroupName
Function ComGroupName Returns String
Procedure Set ComGroupName String value

The default group name to be stored in each TAR header when writing TAR archives. The default value is the logged-on username of the application's process.

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LastBinaryResult
Function ComLastBinaryResult Returns Variant

The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to True. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).

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LastErrorHtml
Function ComLastErrorHtml Returns String

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorText
Function ComLastErrorText Returns String

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorXml
Function ComLastErrorXml Returns String

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastMethodSuccess
Function ComLastMethodSuccess Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComLastMethodSuccess Boolean value

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastStringResult
Function ComLastStringResult Returns String

The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to True. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).

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LastStringResultLen
Function ComLastStringResultLen Returns Integer

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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MatchCaseSensitive
Function ComMatchCaseSensitive Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComMatchCaseSensitive Boolean value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

Determines whether pattern matching for the MustMatch and MustNotMatch properties is case-sensitive or not. The default value is False.

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MustMatch
Function ComMustMatch Returns String
Procedure Set ComMustMatch String value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

If set, then file paths must match this pattern when creating TAR archives, or when extracting from TAR archives. If a file does not match, it will not be included when creating a TAR, or it will not be extracted when extracting from a TAR. This property also applies to methods that create or extract from compressed TAR archives.

The must-match pattern may include 0 or more asterisk characters, each of which represents 0 or more of any character. For example, the pattern "*.txt" causes only .txt files to be included or extracted. The default value is an empty string, indicating that all files are implicitly matched.

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MustNotMatch
Function ComMustNotMatch Returns String
Procedure Set ComMustNotMatch String value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

If set, then file paths must NOT match this pattern when creating TAR archives, or when extracting from TAR archives. If a file path matches, it will not be included when creating a TAR, or it will not be extracted when extracting from a TAR. This property also applies to methods that create or extract from compressed TAR archives.

The must-not-match pattern may include 0 or more asterisk characters, each of which represents 0 or more of any character. For example, the pattern "*.obj" causes all .obj files to be skipped. The default value is an empty string, indicating that no files are skipped.

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NoAbsolutePaths
Function ComNoAbsolutePaths Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComNoAbsolutePaths Boolean value

If True, then absolute paths are converted to relative paths by removing the leading "/" or "\" character when untarring. This protects your system from unknowingly untarring files into important system directories, such as C:\Windows\system32. The default value is True.

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NumDirRoots
Function ComNumDirRoots Returns Integer

The total number of directory roots set by calling AddDirRoot (i.e. the number of times AddDirRoot was called by the application). A TAR archive is created by calling AddDirRoot for one or more directory tree roots, followed by a single call to WriteTar (or WriteTarBz2, WriteTarGz, WriteTarZ). This allows for TAR archives containing multiple directory trees to be created.

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ScriptFileMode
Function ComScriptFileMode Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComScriptFileMode Integer value

The file permissions to used in WriteTar* methods for shell script files (.sh, .csh, .bash, .bsh). The default is octal 0755. This is the value to be stored in the "mode" field of each TAR header for a file entries.

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SuppressOutput
Function ComSuppressOutput Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComSuppressOutput Boolean value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

If True, then untar methods, such as Untar, UntarGz, UntarBz2, and UntarZ, do not produce any output. Setting this value equal to True is useful when the CaptureXmlListing is also set to True, which enables an application to get the contents of a TAR archive without extracting. The default value is False.

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UntarCaseSensitive
Function ComUntarCaseSensitive Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComUntarCaseSensitive Boolean value

This property is deprecated. Applications should instead use the MatchCaseSensitive property. Until this property is officially removed, it will behave the same as the MatchCaseSensitive property.

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UntarDebugLog
Function ComUntarDebugLog Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComUntarDebugLog Boolean value

Similar to the VerboseLogging property. If set to True, then information about each file/directory extracted in an untar method call is logged to LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml / LastErrorHtml). The default value is False.

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UntarDiscardPaths
Function ComUntarDiscardPaths Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComUntarDiscardPaths Boolean value

If True, then discard all path information when untarring. This causes all files to be untarred into a single directory. The default value is False.

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UntarFromDir
Function ComUntarFromDir Returns String
Procedure Set ComUntarFromDir String value

The directory path where files are extracted when untarring. The default value is ".", meaning that the current working directory of the calling process is used. If UntarDiscardPaths is set, then all files are untarred into this directory. Otherwise, the untar operation will re-create a directory tree rooted in this directory.

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UntarMaxCount
Function ComUntarMaxCount Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComUntarMaxCount Integer value

Limits the number of files extracted during an untar to this count. The default value is 0 to indicate no maximum. To untar a single file, one might set the UntarMatchPattern such that it will match only the file to be extracted, and also set UntarMaxCount equal to 1. This causes an untar to scan the TAR archive until it finds the matching file, extract it, and then return.

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UserId
Function ComUserId Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComUserId Integer value

The default numerical UID to be stored in each TAR header when writing TAR archives. The default value is 1000.

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UserName
Function ComUserName Returns String
Procedure Set ComUserName String value

The default user name to be stored in each TAR header when writing TAR archives. The default value is the logged-on username of the application's process.

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VerboseLogging
Function ComVerboseLogging Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComVerboseLogging Boolean value

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Function ComVersion Returns String

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

More Information and Examples
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WriteFormat
Function ComWriteFormat Returns String
Procedure Set ComWriteFormat String value

The TAR format to use when writing a TAR archive. Valid values are "gnu", "pax", and "ustar". The default value is "gnu".

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XmlListing
Function ComXmlListing Returns String
Procedure Set ComXmlListing String value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

Contains the XML listing of the contents of the TAR archive for the last untar method call (such as Untar, UntarGz, etc.) where the CaptureXmlListing property was set to True.

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Methods

AddDirRoot
Function ComAddDirRoot String dirPath Returns Boolean

Adds a directory tree to be included in the next call to one of the WriteTar* methods. To include multiple directory trees in a .tar, call AddDirRoot multiple times followed by a single call to WriteTar.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AddDirRoot2
Function ComAddDirRoot2 String rootPrefix String rootPath Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.56

Adds a directory tree to be included in the next call to one of the WriteTar* methods. To include multiple directory trees in a .tar, call AddDirRoot2 (and/or AddDirRoot) multiple times followed by a single call to WriteTar.

The rootPrefix adds a prefix to the path in the TAR for all files added under this root. The rootPrefix should not end with a forward-slash char. For example: This is good: "abc/123", but this is not good: "abc/123/". If the DirPrefix property is also set, its prefix will added first.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AddFile
Function ComAddFile String path Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.46

Adds a local file to be included in the next call to one of the WriteTar* methods. To include multiple files or directory trees in a .tar, call AddFile/AddDirRoot multiple times followed by a single call to WriteTar (or WriteTarGz, or WriteTarBz2).

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AddFile2
Function ComAddFile2 String filePath String pathWithinTar Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.69

Adds a local file to be included in the next call to one of the WriteTar* methods. Allows for the path within the TAR to be specified. To include multiple files or directory trees in a .tar, call AddFile/AddFile2/AddDirRoot multiple times followed by a single call to WriteTar (or WriteTarGz, or WriteTarBz2).

Note: The DirPrefix property does not apply to files added via this method because this method explicilty specifies the path-in-tar.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ClearDirRootsAndFiles
Function ComClearDirRootsAndFiles Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.84

Clears all directory roots and files previously added by calls to AddDirRoot, AddDirRoot2, AddFile, and AddFile2.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CreateDeb
Function ComCreateDeb String controlPath String dataPath String debPath Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.66

Creates a .deb Debian binary package archive from a control.tar.gz and data.tar.gz. The controlPath is the path to the control.tar.gz file (or equivalent), and the dataPath is the path to the data.tar.gz file. The output file path (.deb) is specified in debPath.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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GetDirRoot
Function ComGetDirRoot Integer index Returns String

Returns the value of the Nth directory root. For example, if an application calls AddDirRoot twice, then the NumDirRoots property would have a value of 2, and GetDirRoot(0) would return the path passed to AddDirRoot in the 1st call, and GetDirRoot(1) would return the directory path in the 2nd call to AddDirRoot.

Returns null on failure

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ListXml
Function ComListXml String tarPath Returns String

Scans a TAR archive and returns XML detailing the files and directories found within the TAR.

Returns null on failure

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ListXmlAsync (1)
Function ComListXmlAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the ListXml method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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LoadTaskCaller
Function ComLoadTaskCaller cComChilkatTask task Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Loads the caller of the task's async method.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Untar
Function ComUntar String tarPath Returns Integer

Extracts the files and directories from a TAR archive, reconstructing the directory tree(s) in the local filesystem. The files are extracted to the directory specified by the UntarFromDir property. Returns the number of files and directories extracted, or -1 for failure.

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UntarAsync (1)
Function ComUntarAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the Untar method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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UntarBz2
Function ComUntarBz2 String tarPath Returns Boolean

Extracts the files and directories from a tar.bz2 (or tar.bzip2) archive, reconstructing the directory tree(s) in the local filesystem. The files are extracted to the directory specified by the UntarFromDir property.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UntarBz2Async (1)
Function ComUntarBz2Async String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UntarBz2 method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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UntarFirstMatchingToBd
Function ComUntarFirstMatchingToBd String tarPath String matchPattern cComChilkatBinData bd Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.82

Untars the first file matching the matchPattern into bd.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UntarFirstMatchingToMemory
Function ComUntarFirstMatchingToMemory Variant tarFileBytes String matchPattern Returns Variant

Memory-to-memory untar. The first file matching the matchPattern is extracted and returned.

Returns null on failure

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UntarFromMemory
Function ComUntarFromMemory Variant tarFileBytes Returns Integer

Extracts the files and directories from an in-memory TAR archive, reconstructing the directory tree(s) in the local filesystem. The files are extracted to the directory specified by the UntarFromDir property. Returns the number of files and directories extracted, or -1 for failure.

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UntarFromMemoryAsync (1)
Function ComUntarFromMemoryAsync Variant tarFileBytes Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UntarFromMemory method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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UntarGz
Function ComUntarGz String tarPath Returns Boolean

Extracts the files and directories from a tar.gz (or tar.gzip) archive, reconstructing the directory tree(s) in the local filesystem. The files are extracted to the directory specified by the UntarFromDir property.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UntarGzAsync (1)
Function ComUntarGzAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UntarGz method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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UntarZ
Function ComUntarZ String tarPath Returns Boolean

Extracts the files and directories from a tar.Z archive, reconstructing the directory tree(s) in the local filesystem. The files are extracted to the directory specified by the UntarFromDir property.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UntarZAsync (1)
Function ComUntarZAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UntarZ method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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VerifyTar
Function ComVerifyTar String tarPath Returns Boolean

Verifies that a TAR archive is valid. This method opens the TAR archive and scans the entire file by walking the TAR headers. Returns True if no errors were found. Otherwise returns False.

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VerifyTarAsync (1)
Function ComVerifyTarAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the VerifyTar method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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WriteTar
Function ComWriteTar String tarPath Returns Boolean

Writes a TAR archive. The directory trees previously added by calling AddDirRoot one or more times are included in the output TAR archive.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteTarAsync (1)
Function ComWriteTarAsync String tarPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the WriteTar method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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WriteTarBz2
Function ComWriteTarBz2 String bz2Path Returns Boolean

Writes a .tar.bz2 compressed TAR archive. The directory trees previously added by calling AddDirRoot one or more times are included in the output file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteTarBz2Async (1)
Function ComWriteTarBz2Async String bz2Path Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the WriteTarBz2 method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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WriteTarGz
Function ComWriteTarGz String gzPath Returns Boolean

Writes a .tar.gz (also known as .tgz) compressed TAR archive. The directory trees previously added by calling AddDirRoot one or more times are included in the output file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteTarGzAsync (1)
Function ComWriteTarGzAsync String gzPath Returns cComChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the WriteTarGz method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns null on failure

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