2.4 KiB
tar
extract .tar file
tar vfx archive.tar
unzip and extract .tar.gz or .tgz file
tar vfxz g_zipped_archive.tar.gz
turn directory into a .tar file
tar vfc tarred_directory.tar directory
turn directory into g-zipped directory
tar vfcz z_zipped_directory.tar.gz directory
Basic Usage
vf means verbosely list files (v) and use a file (f), not stdin.
These appear in most commands.
Untar a file:
tar vfx <tar-file-to-extract>
Create a tar file from a directory:
tar vfc <name-of-tar-file> <directory-to-tar>
Remembering the Flags
tar is very finicky. Flags don't need to be prepended by a hyphen, but are
instead bundled into the first word on the command line. A leading hyphen will
break some implementations or require an order. For example, tar vfx might
work while with a hyphen it would require tar -xvf, with the x flag first.
You can get maximum portability is you never use the hyphens, so examples here
are shown without the hyphen.
You'll almost always want vf. v verbosely lists files as they are
manipulated, and f means you're reading from a file, not stdin. You can
remember vf if you remember that tar is Very Finicky: vf.
Extract things from a tar file with x for extraction. Compress things to a
tar file with c for compress.
And you'll have to just remember that g-zipping is z and b-zipping is j.
Tarring
Compress directory (c) into g-zipped (z) directory:
tar vfcz z_zipped_directory.tar.gz directory
Compress directory (c) into b-zipped (j) directory:
tar vfcj b_zipped_directory.tar.bz2 directory
Compress directory (c) into xz-zipped (J) directory:
tar vfcJ xz_zipped_directory.tar.xz directory
Untarring
Untar (x) and unzip a g-zipped (z) file:
tar vfxz g_zipped_archive.tar.gz
Untar (x) and unzip a b-zipped (j) file:
tar vfxj b_zipped_archive.tar.bz2
Untar (x) and unzip an xz-zipped (J) file:
tar vfxJ xz_zipped_archive.tar.xz
Partial Untarring
Extract only part of the contents (directory/foo.txt) from a .tar file:
tar vfx archived_directory.tar directory/foo.txt
Display Contents
List (t) the contents of a tar file without untarring it:
$ tar vft tarred_directory.tar
drwxr-xr-x 0 tyrion group 0 Feb 4 14:54 directory/
-rw-r--r-- 0 tyrion group 0 Feb 4 14:54 directory/bar.txt
-rw-r--r-- 0 tyrion group 0 Feb 4 14:54 directory/foo.txt