title
Tar command

Tar-command

Command used for creating .tar.gz or .tgz archives or extracting .tar.gz or .tgz archives

tar -czvf ../archive_name.tar.gz /path/to/directory_or_file

tar -xzvf ../archive_name.tgz /path/to/directory_or_file

-c -> Create an archive

-x -> Extract an archive

-z -> Compress the archive with gunzip

-v -> Stands for verbose and shows the progress in the terminal while creating the archive or extracting one. This one is optional

-f -> Allows you to specify the filename of the archive

Example of compressing single file

  tar -czvf myArchive.tar.gz /usr/local/myFiles/myFileToArchive.txt

Example of compressing single direcotry

  tar -czvf myArchive.tar.gz /usr/local/myFiles

Example of compressing multiple direcotries

  tar -czvf myArchive.tar.gz /usr/local/myFiles /usr/local/myFiles2 /usr/local/myLog.txt

Example of compressing directory excluding some files from same directory

  tar -czvf myArchive.tar.gz /usr/local/myFiles --exclude=/usr/local/myFiles/myFileToArchive.txt

Example of decompressing single archive

  tar -xzvf myArchive.tar.gz

Example of decompressing single archive to specific location

  tar -xzvf myArchive.tar.gz -C /usr/local/

Example of decompressing single archive from specific location to current directory

  tar -xzvf /usr/local/myArchive.tar.gz