How to create and extract tar archives in Linux

1. Working with tar archives
2. Create an archive
3. Create a compressed .tar.gz
4. Extract an archive
5. Extract to a specific directory
6. List the contents
7. Extract a single file
8. Putting it together

#Working with tar archives

tar bundles many files and directories into a single archive file, optionally compressed. I use it constantly for backups, releases and moving directories between servers. The flags look cryptic at first, but they're just letters you combine.

The ones you'll use most:

• c — create a new archive
• x — extract an archive
• t — list the contents
• v — verbose, print each file as it's processed
• f — the next argument is the archive filename (always needed)
• z — pass the archive through gzip compression

#Create an archive

Bundle a directory into a .tar file with c, v and f:

tar -cvf backup.tar ./project

This creates backup.tar containing the project directory, printing each file as it goes.

#Create a compressed .tar.gz

Add z to gzip the archive as it's built. The convention is to name it .tar.gz (or .tgz):

tar -czvf backup.tar.gz ./project

Compressed archives are much smaller and the standard choice for backups or transferring over the network.

#Extract an archive

Swap c for x to extract. For an uncompressed archive:

tar -xvf backup.tar

For a gzip-compressed one, add z again:

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz

Modern versions of tar actually detect the compression automatically, so tar -xvf backup.tar.gz usually works too — but being explicit with z never hurts.

#Extract to a specific directory

By default files land in the current directory. Use -C to extract somewhere else (the target directory must already exist):

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz -C /var/www/releases

#List the contents

Before extracting an archive someone handed you, it's worth peeking inside with t. This lists every entry without unpacking anything:

tar -tvf backup.tar.gz

#Extract a single file

You don't have to unpack the whole thing. Name the exact path (as shown by the listing above) after the archive to pull out just that file:

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz project/config/app.php

This recreates only project/config/app.php relative to your current directory.

#Putting it together

Once the letters click, tar reads naturally: -czvf is "create, gzip, verbose, file" and -xzvf is "extract, gzip, verbose, file". Those two cover the large majority of what you'll ever need.