Skip to content

tar

Also see archives

The tar tool is used to create or extract archives.

An archive created with tar is usually called a "tarball."

Creating a Tarball

Create a tarball using the tar command with the -czf options.

tar -czf my-project.tar.gz ./my-project/

  • -czf
    • -c: Creates a new archive.
    • -z: Specify that you want to use gzip to compress it.
    • -f: Specify the output file
  • ./my-project/: The directory you want to create an archive from.

Extracting a Tarball

Extract a tarball using tar with the -xzf options.

tar -xzf ./something.tar.gz
This will extract the tarball and dump the files into your current working directory.

Note that it's usually a good idea to make a new directory before doing this, as some people will create their archives in such a way that all the files are at the top-level of the archive (no subdirectory). These are referred to as "tarbombs." 

mkdir something
mv ./something.tar.gz ./something && cd ./something
tar -xzf ./something.tar.gz