Linux tar Command: Archive Files

tar bundles files and folders into a single archive file, usually compressed, ending in .tar.gz. It is the standard way to back up folders and move them between Linux computers.

Creating an archive

tar -czvf backup.tar.gz documents/

Creates a compressed archive called backup.tar.gz containing the documents folder.

tar -czvf site.tar.gz --exclude="*.log" website/

Archives the website folder but leaves out any .log files.

tar -cJvf backup.tar.xz documents/

Uses xz compression (-J) instead of gzip. Slower, but the file is smaller.

Looking inside and extracting

tar -tzvf backup.tar.gz

Lists the files in the archive without extracting them.

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz

Extracts everything into the current directory.

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz -C restore/

Extracts into the restore directory instead. The directory must already exist.

tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz documents/report.txt

Extracts just one file.

tar -xf backup.tar.xz

Extracts any type of tar archive. Modern tar works out the compression for you.

Check before extracting. Extracting replaces files with the same names. List the contents first with -t if you're not sure.

Zip files

For sharing with Windows users, zip files are often easier. You may need to install the zip and unzip packages first.

zip -r documents.zip documents/

Creates documents.zip from the documents folder.

unzip -l documents.zip

Lists the files in a zip file.

unzip documents.zip -d unzipped/

Extracts a zip file into the unzipped directory.

Quick reference

Option	Meaning
`-c`	Create an archive
`-x`	Extract
`-t`	List the contents
`-z`	gzip compression (.tar.gz)
`-J`	xz compression (.tar.xz)
`-v`	Show each file as it is processed
`-f`	The archive file name (always last)
`-C dir`	Extract into another directory