Tar Archive

From KevinWiki

Contents 1 Tar 1.1 Create GZipped Tar File 1.2 Extract GZipped Tar File 1.3 Create and Split Tar File into Several Files 1.4 List Files Inside Tar File 1.5 Create GZipped Tar with NOT GNU Tar 1.6 Extract GZipped Tar with NOT GNU Tar

Tar

Tar is both a file format and the programme to handle that file.

Create GZipped Tar File

$ tar -czvf tar_file_name.tar.gz input_file_or_directory_1 input_file_or_directory_2 ...

Extract GZipped Tar File

$ tar -xzvf tar_file_name.tar.gz

To extract file to a specific directory, use this.

$ tar -xzvf tar_file_name.tar.gz -C /directory/destination_directory

Create and Split Tar File into Several Files

• create archives

$ tar cz large_file_1 large_file_2 | split -b 1024MiB - result_files.tgz_ 

• uncompress

$ cat result_files.tgz_* | tar xz 

• This solution avoids the need to use an intermediate large file when (de)compressing.
• Use the tar -C option to use a different directory for the resulting files.

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• If only one file needs to be split, tar with a single source file is still fine but in this case, gzip can be used as well.
• create archives

$ gzip -c one_large_file | split -b 1024MiB - result_files.gz_

• uncompress

$ cat result_files.gz_* | gunzip -c > one_large_file

List Files Inside Tar File

$ tar -tzf tar_file_name.tar.gz

Create GZipped Tar with NOT GNU Tar

$ tar -cvf - input_file_or_directory_1 input_file_or_directory_2 | gzip > tar_file_name.tar.gz

-If gzip is not available, use compress instead.

Extract GZipped Tar with NOT GNU Tar

gunzip -c tar_file_name.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

-If gunzip is not available, user uncompress instead.