The tar utility archives, bundles, and extracts file trees on Linux and Unix systems.
Common Operations
Compress and Archive
# Create gzip-compressed archive (.tar.gz)
tar -czf archive.tar.gz /path/to/files
# Create uncompressed archive (.tar)
tar -cf archive.tar /path/to/files
# Create bzip2-compressed archive (.tar.bz2)
tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 /path/to/files
Extract Archive
# Extract gzip-compressed archive in current directory
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz
# Extract archive to a target directory
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz -C /target/directory
# Extract plain tar archive
tar -xf archive.tar
List and Inspect
# List archive contents without extracting
tar -tzf archive.tar.gz
# List archive contents verbosely with details
tar -tvzf archive.tar.gz
Append Files
# Append file to existing uncompressed archive
tar -rf archive.tar new_file.txt
# Update files newer than archive copy
tar -uf archive.tar changed_file.txt
Option Flags Reference
| Flag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
-c |
--create |
Create a new archive |
-x |
--extract |
Extract files from an archive |
-t |
--list |
List table of contents |
-z |
--gzip |
Filter archive through gzip |
-j |
--bzip2 |
Filter archive through bzip2 |
-f |
--file |
Use specified archive file name |
-v |
--verbose |
Verbosely list processed files |
-C |
--directory |
Change to target directory before operations |
-u |
--update |
Only append files that are newer than archive copy |