Create and Compress and Archive

Archive a group of files:

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz file1 file2 file3

Archive an entire directory:

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz directory/

Extract a Compressed Archive

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

List the Contents of a Compressed Archive

tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz

Common tar Switches

• -c create a new archive
• -x extract files from an archive
• -t list the contents of an archive
• -z filter the archive through gzip
• -v verbosely list files processed
• -f filename of the archive (filename must always immediately follow)

Filed under: System Administration, linux, tar