Compress Files in Linux Using tar

The tar command on Linux is often used to create .tgz archive files. It can create a .tar archive and then compress it with gzip or bzip2 compression in a single command

tar Command Options: 

• c  -  Createa  archive file
• x  -  Extract archive file 
• t  -  Display the table of content(list) 
• v  -  Verbose 
• z  -  Use compression (gzip) 
• j  -  Use comprassion (bzip2) 
• f  -  Use this file 
• C  -  Specified direcotry for extraction 
• r  -  Append file to existing archive file

1.  .tar Archive:

tar cf new.tar new

Create a tar archive

tar tf new.tar

List the content of tar file

rm -rf new (remove new dir)

tar xvf new.tar

Extract tar archive in current directory 

tar xvf new.tar -C /root/newfolder

Extract tar archive in a specified directory 

tar xvf new.tar new/file.txt

Extract single file from .tar archive

tar xvf new.tar “new/file.txt” “new/shell.php”

Extract multiple file from .tar archive

tar xvf new.tar --wildcards *.txt

Extract type of files from .tar archive using wildcards

tar rvf new.tar new_file.txt

Append file to existing tar archive 

2.  .tgz (.tar.gz) Archive

tar zcf new.tgz new

Creat a tgz archive

tar tf new.tgz

Display content of tgz archive

tar xvf new.tgz

Extract tgz archive in current directory 

tar xvf new.tgz  -C /root/extract

Extract tgz archive in specified directory

tar xvf new.tgz new/file.txt

Extract single file from .tgz archive

tar xvf new.tbz “new/file” “new/shell.php”

Extract multiple file from .tgz archive

tar xvf new.tgz --wildcards *.txt

Extract type of files from .tgz archive using wildcards 

3.  .tbz (.tar.bz2) Archive

tar cjf new.tbz new

Creat a .tbz archive

tar tf new.tbz

Display content of .tbz archive

tar xvf new.tbz

Extract .tgz archive

tar xvf new.tbz -C /root/extract/

Extract .tbz archive to specified directory

tar xvf new.tbz new/file.txt

Extract single file from .tbz archive

tar xvf new.tbz “new/file.txt” “new/shell.php”

Extract multiple file from .tbz archive

tar xvf new.tbz --wildcards *.txt

Extract type of files from .tbz archive using wildcards