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Archiving Files Using Tar

Archiving Files Using Tar

November 9, 2023

I like archiving files and directories, mostly due to local storage constraints. Creating backups of files and saving them in tarballs or 7zips has become second nature to me. However I have realized I have been doing it wrong all along. I’ve predominantly relied on GUI methods, only to discover that the command line method is so straightforward that even a caveman could do it.

This is a short note for me, and for you in case you would want to compress or extract archived files using the command line.

  1. Creating a Tar Ball
tar -cvf project.tar /path/to/files  # does not compress
  1. Compressing a Directory
tar -czvf project.tar.gz /path/to/files
  1. Extracting All Files
tar -xf project.tar
  1. Listing Contents in Tar File
tar -tvf project.tar.gz
  1. Finding Specific File in Tar File
tar -tvf project.tar.gz "path/to/file"
  1. Extracting One file from Tar
tar -zxvf project.tar.gz "/path/to/file"

OPTIONS:

  • –c create an archive
  • –f specify file
  • –t list contents without extracting archive
  • –v verbose; displays progress in the terminal
  • –x extracts files
  • –z compress with gzip
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