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CLI

itar ships a small CLI for building and inspecting index files.

Commands

Command Purpose
itar index create <archive>.itar [--single TAR \| --shards shard0.tar shard1.tar ...] Build an index for a single archive or an explicit set of shards. With no flags, shards are auto-discovered next to <archive>.itar.
itar index list <archive>.itar List members. Use -l for shard/offset info and -H for human-readable sizes.
itar index check <archive>.itar Validate recorded entries; add --member NAME to focus on specific files.
itar cat <archive>.itar <member> Stream a member’s bytes to stdout.

Shard naming

For sharded datasets, name shards with a zero-padded suffix before building the index:

tar cf photos-0.tar wedding/
tar cf photos-1.tar vacation/
itar index create photos.itar

The index is saved as photos.itar, alongside photos-0.tar, photos-1.tar, etc.