diff -r 1bf721567067 Lib/tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py	Fri Mar 01 21:28:23 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py	Sun Mar 03 09:50:42 2013 +0530
@@ -27,6 +27,18 @@
 # OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 #
 """Read from and write to tar format archives.
+
+Command line usage:
+    
+Options:
+    -o/--output <dir> -e/--extract <archive> <f1> <f2> ... : Extract the 
+            files <f1>, <f2>,... mentioned as the arguments from <archive>
+             with output folder as dir.
+            (If <dir> not specified extracts in current dir.)
+            (If <f1> <f2> ... not specified extracts all the files.)
+    -c/--create <archive> <f1> <f2> .. ... : Creates an archive of 
+            files <f1>, <f2>, ... with the name of the archive as <file>.
+    -l/--list <archive> : Lists the members of the archive
 """
 
 version     = "0.9.0"
@@ -2426,3 +2438,58 @@
 
 bltn_open = open
 open = TarFile.open
+
+
+def main(args=None):
+    if args is None:
+        args = sys.argv[1:]
+    output = ""
+    import getopt
+    try:
+        opts, args = getopt.getopt(args, "e:l:c:o:h",
+                                   ["extract=", "list=", "create=", "output=",
+                                     "help"])
+    except getopt.error as err:
+        print(err)
+        print("user -h/--help for command line help")
+        return 2
+    for o, file in opts:
+        if o in("-e", "--extract"):
+            t = open(file, 'r')
+            if args==[]:
+                t.extractall(output)
+            else:
+                for member in args:
+                    t.extract(member, output)
+        if o in("-l", "--list"):
+            t = open(file, 'r')
+            t.list()
+        if o in("-c", "--create"):
+            try:
+                mode = file.rpartition('.')[2]
+            except AttributeError:
+                print("Output file name not correct")
+            if mode in ('gz', 'bz2', 'xz'):
+                mode = 'w:' + mode
+            elif mode == 'tgz':
+                mode = 'gz'
+            elif mode in ('tbz', 'tbz2', 'tb2'):
+                mode = 'bz2'
+            elif mode == 'txz':
+                mode = 'xz'
+            else:
+                mode = 'w'
+            t = open(file, mode)
+            for member in args:
+                t.add(member)
+        if o in ("-o", "--output"):
+            output = file
+        if o in("-h", "--help"):
+            print(__doc__, end=" ")
+            return 0
+    t.close()
+    return None
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())