Linux Compression and Decompression Commands

tar

-c: Create a compressed archive
-x: Extract
-t: List contents
-r: Append files to the end of the archive
-u: Update files in the original archive

These five options are standalone commands; one of them must be used for either compression or extraction. They can be combined with other options, but only one of these five may be used at a time. The following options are optional and can be used as needed during compression or extraction.

-z: Use gzip compression
-j: Use bzip2 compression
-Z: Use compress compression
-v: Display all process details
-O: Extract files to standard output

The following option, -f, is required:

-f: Specify the archive file name. Remember, this option must be the last one in the command line, and only the archive filename should follow it.

# tar -cf all.tar *.jpg
This command packages all .jpg files into an archive named all.tar. -c indicates creating a new archive, and -f specifies the archive filename.

# tar -rf all.tar *.gif
This command adds all .gif files to the all.tar archive. -r means to append files.
# tar -uf all.tar logo.gif
This command updates the logo.gif file in the existing all.tar archive. -u indicates updating files.

# tar -tf all.tar
This command lists all files in the all.tar archive. -t means to list the archive contents.

# tar -xf all.tar
This command extracts all files from the all.tar archive. -x means to extract.

Compression

tar –cvf jpg.tar *.jpg // Packages all jpg files in the directory into a file named jpg.tar

tar –czf jpg.tar.gz *.jpg   // Packages all jpg files into jpg.tar and compresses it with gzip, generating a gzip-compressed package named jpg.tar.gz

tar –cjf jpg.tar.bz2 *.jpg // Packages all jpg files into jpg.tar and compresses it with bzip2, generating a bzip2-compressed package named jpg.tar.bz2

tar –cZf jpg.tar.Z *.jpg   // Packages all jpg files into jpg.tar and compresses it with compress, generating a compress-compressed package named jpg.tar.Z

rar a jpg.rar *.jpg // Compresses files into rar format; requires installing rar for Linux

zip jpg.zip *.jpg // Compresses files into zip format; requires installing zip for Linux

Decompression

tar –xvf file.tar // Extracts a .tar file

tar -xzvf file.tar.gz // Extracts a .tar.gz file

tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2   // Extracts a .tar.bz2 file

tar –xZvf file.tar.Z   // Extracts a .tar.Z file

unrar e file.rar // Extracts a .rar file

unzip file.zip // Extracts a .zip file

Summary

1. *.tar: use tar –xvf to extract
2. *.gz: use gzip -d or gunzip to extract
3. *.tar.gz and *.tgz: use tar –xzf to extract
4. *.bz2: use bzip2 -d or bunzip2 to extract
5. *.tar.bz2: use tar –xjf to extract
6. *.Z: use uncompress to extract
7. *.tar.Z: use tar –xZf to extract
8. *.rar: use unrar e to extract
9. *.zip: use unzip to extract