Mastering tar: Create, Extract, List, and Manage Linux Archives

1. Create a tar archive

Use the c option to create a new .tar file. Example:

# tar -cvf rumenz-14-09-12.tar /home/rumenz/

c

– create a new archive v – verbose output f – specify the archive file name

2. Create a tar.gz archive

Add the z option to compress with gzip. Example:

# tar -cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz /home/MyImages
# tar -cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tgz /home/MyImages

Note: tar.gz and tgz are equivalent.

3. Create a tar.bz2 archive

Use the j option for bzip2 compression, which yields smaller files but slower processing. Example:

# tar -cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php
# tar -cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tbz /home/php
# tar -cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tb2 /home/php

4. Extract a tar archive

Use the x option to extract. Example: # tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar To extract to a specific directory, add -C followed by the target path.

# tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar -C /home/public_html/videos/

5. Extract a tar.gz archive

# tar -xvf thumbnails-14-09-12.tar.gz

Use -C to specify a different destination directory.

6. Extract a tar.bz2 archive

# tar -xvf videos-14-09-12.tar.bz2

7. List contents of a tar archive

Use the t option to list files without extracting.

# tar -tvf uploadprogress.tar

8. List contents of a tar.gz archive

# tar -tvf staging.rumenz.com.tar.gz

9. List contents of a tar.bz2 archive

# tar -tvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2

10. Extract a single file from a tar archive

# tar -xvf cleanfiles.sh.tar cleanfiles.sh
# tar --extract --file=cleanfiles.sh.tar cleanfiles.sh

11. Extract a single file from a tar.gz archive

# tar -zxvf rumenzbackup.tar.gz rumenzbackup.xml
# tar --extract --file=rumenzbackup.tar.gz rumenzbackup.xml

12. Extract a single file from a tar.bz2 archive

# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php/index.php
# tar --extract --file=Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php/index.php

13. Extract multiple files from any archive type

# tar -xvf rumenz-14-09-12.tar "file1" "file2"
# tar -zxvf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz "file1" "file2"
# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 "file1" "file2"

14. Extract a group of files using wildcards

# tar -xvf Phpfiles-org.tar --wildcards '*.php'
# tar -zxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.gz --wildcards '*.php'
# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 --wildcards '*.php'

15. Append files or directories to an existing tar archive

# tar -rvf rumenz-14-09-12.tar xyz.txt
# tar -rvf rumenz-14-09-12.tar php

16. Append to compressed archives (tar.gz / tar.bz2)

Appending directly to .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 is not supported and results in errors such as “This does not look like a tar archive”.

17. Verify tar archives

Use the W (verify) option for uncompressed tar files only.

# tar tvfW rumenz-14-09-12.tar

18. Check archive size

Pipe the archive to wc -c to get its size in bytes.

# tar -czf - rumenz-14-09-12.tar | wc -c
# tar -czf - MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz | wc -c
# tar -czf - Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 | wc -c