How to Compress and Decompress Files Using tar in Linux

The extraction method is precisely the same for tar files that have compression, such as.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, and others. To unzip the .tar.gz files, you’ll need to use specific commands and tools depending on your operating system. Let’s explore the extraction process for both Linux & Windows platforms. Most Linux and BSD desktops come with a graphical archive utility. Most of the Linux files that can be downloaded from the Internet are compressed with a tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 compression formats and it is important to know how to extract such files.

How to extract a .tar.gz file on Mac OS?

Knowing how to unzip a .tar.gz file allows users to extract and access the archives’ contents efficiently. After the tar is generated, we use a modified ls output which clearly shows us the number of bytes per file. As you can see, the tar file is much larger then all of our files combined. The files are simply being archived and some overall overhead for tar is being added.

If the directory does not exist, tar will create it automatically. That means users can download and use it for free during a trial period. Also, its trial version does not have time limitations, and users can still use it even after the trial period has expired, with occasional reminders to purchase the license. Snaps were developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, to package and distribute software focusing on security, sandboxing, and ease of installation and updates. They were officially introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, released in April 2016. Ubuntu Core is a minimalistic and immutable version explicitly designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems.

Notice that we don’t need to use the -z option to list the files. We only need to add the -z option when we’re extracting files from a .tar.gz file. Likewise, we don’t need the -j option to list the files in a tar.bz2 file. If we want to extract the files to a location other than the current directory, we can specify a target directory using the -C (specified directory) option. It’s easy to get confused when navigating between .tar, .tar.gz, and .gz – not to mention zipping and unzipping them. Here are a few frequently asked questions we commonly hear from users working with .tar.gz files.

How to Unzip .tar.gz in Linux using tar

It’s an alternative to the ubiquitous ZIP format and popular among backup and archiving tools, blacks upland 2 tent reviews and details especially in Unix or Linux operating systems. Still, one algorithm (like the GZIP one) may be better then another (like for example BZIP2), and vice versa, for different data sets. We also included the -z option which will use GZIP compression to compress the resulting .tar file once the dumping of data into it is complete. It is great to see that we end up with a 186 byte file, which tells us that – in this case – the tar header / overhead of about 10Kb can be compressed very well.

• In a GUI, right-click the archive you want to extract and select “Extract.”
• Where most operating systems make it easy to extract and create .zip files, the same can’t really be said for .tar files — at least not in ways that are easy to notice.
• Most Linux distributions come with the tar command pre-installed by default.

Scrolling through the output we can see that everything in the tar file is held within a directory called Ukulele Songs, and within that directory, there are files and other directories. If we list the files in the Download directory we will see that another directory called Guitar Songs has been created. Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default. You can use the -C option to extract to a different directory (in this case, /home/user/files).

Extracting .tar.gz Files for Linux

The most often used algorithm for compressing tar files is Gzip. By convention, the name of a tar archive compressed with gzip becomes .tar.gz or .tgz. To do this we’ll use almost how to invest in ethereum uk exactly the same command as before but with one important difference.

We can see that the Ukulele Songs directory contains directories called Random Songs, Ramones and Possibles. Once you’ve done this successfully, you’ll notice that the icon for tar.gz files will change to a 7-Zip icon. While there are many tools to choose from, the most popular include 7-Zip and WinZip. difference between scale up and scale out in cloud computing While slightly different, they are quite lightweight and offer a much simpler alternative to using the command line. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. These tools are not just useful, they are fun to use and can quickly add a lot to your toolbox.

tar: Unrecognized archive format

The .bz2 extension suffix tells us it has been compressed using the bzip2 command. Instead of using the-z (gzip) option, we will use the -j (bzip2) option to unzip the bz2 file. You’ll encounter them frequently while using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or even while using the terminal on macOS. Here’s how to extract — or untar — the contents of a tar file, also known as a tarball. From videos to entire software packages, many files are compressed and stored using the .tar.gz format. While extracting a .tar.gz file isn’t quite as easy as unzipping a .zip, it’s still pretty straightforward.

Extracting .tar.gz Files for Windows

Ubuntu LTS (Long-Term Support) versions, known for their stability and extended support periods, are typically released every two years in April. These are popular for organizations and users who require a reliable and well-supported Ubuntu operating system. The name “Tar” stands for “Tape Archiver” because it was used to place data on storage tapes when tar was invented. The tar program takes one or more files and “wraps” them into a self-contained file.