Same Order

--same-order

--preserve-order

-s

To process large lists of file names on machines with small amounts of memory. Use in conjunction with --compare (--diff, -d), --list (-t) or --extract (--get, -x).

The --same-order (--preserve-order, -s) option tells tar that the list of file names to be listed or extracted is sorted in the same order as the files in the archive. This allows a large list of names to be used, even on a small machine that would not otherwise be able to hold all the names in memory at the same time. Such a sorted list can easily be created by running ‘tar -t’ on the archive and editing its output.

This option is probably never needed on modern computer systems.