(tar.info.gz) Mixing

 
 3.3.4 Mixing Option Styles
 --------------------------
 
 All three styles may be intermixed in a single 'tar' command, so long as
 the rules for each style are fully respected(1).  Old style options and
 either of the modern styles of options may be mixed within a single
 'tar' command.  However, old style options must be introduced as the
 first arguments only, following the rule for old options (old options
 must appear directly after the 'tar' command and some white space).
 Modern options may be given only after all arguments to the old options
 have been collected.  If this rule is not respected, a modern option
 might be falsely interpreted as the value of the argument to one of the
 old style options.
 
    For example, all the following commands are wholly equivalent, and
 illustrate the many combinations and orderings of option styles.
 
      tar --create --file=archive.tar
      tar --create -f archive.tar
      tar --create -farchive.tar
      tar --file=archive.tar --create
      tar --file=archive.tar -c
      tar -c --file=archive.tar
      tar -c -f archive.tar
      tar -c -farchive.tar
      tar -cf archive.tar
      tar -cfarchive.tar
      tar -f archive.tar --create
      tar -f archive.tar -c
      tar -farchive.tar --create
      tar -farchive.tar -c
      tar c --file=archive.tar
      tar c -f archive.tar
      tar c -farchive.tar
      tar cf archive.tar
      tar f archive.tar --create
      tar f archive.tar -c
      tar fc archive.tar
 
    On the other hand, the following commands are _not_ equivalent to the
 previous set:
 
      tar -f -c archive.tar
      tar -fc archive.tar
      tar -fcarchive.tar
      tar -farchive.tarc
      tar cfarchive.tar
 
 These last examples mean something completely different from what the
 user intended (judging based on the example in the previous set which
 uses long options, whose intent is therefore very clear).  The first
 four specify that the 'tar' archive would be a file named '-c', 'c',
 'carchive.tar' or 'archive.tarc', respectively.  The first two examples
 also specify a single non-option, NAME argument having the value
 'archive.tar'.  The last example contains only old style option letters
 (repeating option 'c' twice), not all of which are meaningful (eg., '.',
 'h', or 'i'), with no argument value.
 
    ---------- Footnotes ----------
 
    (1) Before GNU 'tar' version 1.11.6, a bug prevented intermixing old
 style options with long options in some cases.
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