What is the purpose of the 'f' option in the tar command?

The 'f' option in the tar command is used to specify the file name of the archive that you want to create or manipulate. This option indicates to the tar program which file to read from or write to during the execution of the command. For instance, when you want to create an archive, you would use the 'f' option followed by the desired file name, such as tar -cf archive_name.tar directory_name, where archive_name.tar is the name of the archive file being created from the contents of directory_name.

The 'f' option is essential because without it, the tar command wouldn’t know where to store the compressed files or which archive to extract. This option effectively directs the tar command on how to locate the target file, making it a vital element when working with archive management tasks.