How to Compress and Extract Files Using the tar Command on Linux

An archive is a special file that contains any number of files inside. It can be restored via special programs, for example, tar.inside.

• .tar – archive files are usually not compressed.
• .tar.gz – archive file compressed with gzip tool
• .tar.bz2 – archive file compressed with bzip2 tool

Syntax: 

tar options [archive_name.tar] files_to_archive

The tar command does not create a compressed archive, instead, it uses external utilities like gzip and bzip2.

Command functionality:

Option	Full format	Description
-a	–concatenate	Concentrate two archives
-c	–create	Creating a new archive
-d	–diff –delete	Showing the difference between archives Delete file from the archive
-r	–append	add files at the end of the existing archive
-t	–list	Show archive content
-u	–update	Update an archive
-x	–extract	Extract files from the archive

Command parameters:

Parameter	Full format	Description
-C dir	–directory=DIR	change directory before executing
-f	–file=ARCHIVE	Use specified archive file
-j	–bzip2	compress using bzip2
-p	–same-permissions	Save file permissions to file
-v	–verbose –total	Show process information Show final result
-z	–gzip	compress using gzip

Example of using the tar command: 

1) Compress one file using the tar command:

tar -czvf one-file-compressed.tar.gz hello_world

2) Compress directory using the tar command:

tar -czvf dir-compressed.tar.gz test_directory/

3) Show the archive content:

tar -tf archive.tar.gz

4) Add content to the existing archive:

tar -rvf existing-archive-name.tar file-directory-to-compress/

5) Update content in an archive: 

6) Compress with bzip2:

tar -cjvf one-file-compressed.tar.bz2 hello_world

7) Extract files from a .tar archive:

tar -xf archive.tar.gz

The same with .tar.gz and .tar.bz2