Tar

This is about the unix tar command.

Basic Usage

Create Archive

Use the -c option to create.

$ tar -cf archive.tar file1 file2 ...

List Archive Contents

Use the -t option to list contents.

$ tar -tf archive.tar
file1
file2

Extracting Files

To extract everything, use the -x.

$ tar -xf archive.tar
$ ls
file1
file2

To extract only a specific file or folder, pass the filename or path name after the archive.

$ tar -xf archive.tar file1
$ ls
file1

To extract based on a pattern:

$ tar -xf archive.tar --wildcards --no-anchored '*le1'
$ ls
file1

Compression

Common compression algorithms used in conjunction with tar are:

Algorithm	Flag	Extension
gzip	-z	.tar.gz, .tgz
bzip2	-j	.tar.bz2, .tbz2
xz	-J	.tar.xz

Add the flag when creating or extracting using tar.