C-6
Catalyst 3750 SwitchSoftware Configuration Guide
OL-8550-09
AppendixC Working with the Cisco IOS File System, Configura tion Files, and Software Images
Working with the Flash File System
Deleting Files
When you no longer need a file on a flash memory device, you can permanently delete it. To delete a file
or directory from a specified flash device, use the delete [/force] [/recursive] [filesystem:]/file-url
privileged EXEC command.
Use the /recursive keyword for deleting a directory and all subdirectories and the files contained in it.
Use the /force keyword to suppress the prompting that confirms a deletion of each file in the directory.
You are prompted only once at the beginning of this deletion process. Use the /force and /recursive
keywords for deleting old software images that were installed by using the archive download-sw
command but are no longer needed.
If you omit the filesystem: option, the switch uses the default device specified by the cd command. For
file-url, you specify the path (directory) and the name of the file to be deleted.
When you attempt to delete any files, the system prompts you to confirm the deletion.
Caution When files are deleted, their contents cannot be recovered.
This example shows how to delete the file myconfig from the default flash memory device:
Switch# delete myconfig
Creating, Displaying, and Extracting tar Files
You can create a tar file and write files into it, list the files in a tar file, and extract the files from a tar
file as described in the next sections.
Note Instead of using the copy privileged EXEC command or the archive tar privileged EXEC command, we
recommend using the archive download-sw and archive upload-sw privileged EXEC commands to
download and upload software image files. For switch stacks, the archive download-sw and archive
upload-sw privileged EXEC commands can only be used through the stack master. Software images
downloaded to the stack master are automatically downloaded to the rest of the stack members.
To upgrade a switch with an incompatible software image, use the archive copy-sw privileged EXEC
command to copy the software image from an existing stack member to the incompatible switch. That
switch automatically reloads and joins the stack as a fully functioning member.

Creating a tar File

To create a tar file and write files into it, use this privileged EXEC command:
archive tar /create destination-url flash:/file-url
For destination-url, specify the destination URL alias for the local or network file system and the name
of the tar file to create. These options are supported:
•For the local flash file system, the syntax is
flash:
•For the FTP, the syntax is
ftp:[[//username[:password]@location]/directory]/tar-filename.tar