Master Linux Compression: gzip, bzip2, zip, xz & tar Commands

Preface

Linux offers many compression and decompression tools; this article summarizes them for quick reference.

Compression and Decompression Commands Summary

1. gzip

Description: compression and decompression.
Usage: gzip [options]... [file]...
Options:
  -d  decompress

# gzip test.txt       # creates test.txt.gz
# gzip -d test.txt.gz # decompress gz file

Note: gzip can only compress files, not directories, and does not keep the original file.

2. bzip2

Description: compression and decompression.
Options:
  -d  decompress

# bzip2 test.txt       # creates test.txt.bz2
# bzip2 -d test.txt.bz2 # decompress bz2 file

Note: bzip2 can only compress files, not directories, and does not keep the original file.

3. zip & unzip

zip:

Description: compression.
Options:
  -r  recursive, include subdirectories
  -o  set archive timestamp to newest file
  -q  quiet mode

# zip -ro data.zip /opt   # package all contents of /opt into data.zip

unzip:

Description: decompression.
Options:
  -d<directory>  specify output directory
  -l  list archive contents
  -q  quiet mode

# unzip -d /root/te/ data.zip   # extract to /root/te
# unzip -l data.zip            # list files in archive

4. xz

Description: similar to bzip2 and gzip but higher compression ratio.
Options:
  -d  decompress
  -k  keep original file (default deletes)
  -f  force execution

# xz test.txt       # creates test.txt.xz
# xz -d test.txt.xz # decompress

5. tar

Description: archiving and extraction.
Options:
  -c  create archive
  -x  extract archive
  -t  list archive contents
  -r  append files to archive
  --delete  delete files from archive
  -u  update files in archive

The above commands are independent; only one can be used at a time, but they can be combined with other commands.

-z   use gzip for compression/decompression
-j   use bzip2 for compression/decompression
-v   verbose output
-O   write output to standard output
-C   specify extraction path
-f   specify archive name (must be last option)

The -f option must be the last parameter and is followed by the archive name.

# Compress:
 tar -cvf jpg.tar *.jpg
 tar -czvf jpg.tar.gz *.jpg
 tar -cjvf jpg.tar.bz2 *.jpg
 tar -tf jpg.tar.bz2
 tar -f te.tar -r te.txt
 tar --delete te.txt -f te.tar

# Decompress:
 tar -xvf file.tar
 tar -zxvf file.tar.gz
 tar -jxvf file.tar.bz2
 tar -xZvf file.tar.Z
 tar -zxvf test.tar.gz -C /tmp

Common Decompression Commands Summary

*.tar → tar -xvf *.gz → gzip -d or gunzip *.tar.gz and *.tgz → tar -xzf *.bz2 → bzip2 -d or bunzip2 *.tar.bz2 → tar -xjf *.Z → uncompress *.tar.Z → tar -xZf *.rar → unrar e *.zip →

unzip