tar Command – Basic Archiving

Learn how to create, extract, and list files within a compressed tar archive in Secure Shell (SSH), or cPanel Terminal, with the tar command.

• Create an archive
• Extract Files
• List Archived Files

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Create an Archive

tar -czvf archive-name.tar.gz path-to-directory-or-files

Example: tar -czvf images.tar.gz *.png – Archive all PNG image files in the current directory into a images.tar.gz file
Example: tar -czvf backup.tar.gz * – Archive all files and folders in the current directory into a backup.tar.gz file

-c – create
-z – compress or decompress
-v – list files processed
-f – specify filename

Extract Files

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

Example: tar -xzvf images.tar.gz

Used options:

-x – Extract
-z – compress or decompress
-v – list files processed
-f – specify filename

Extract to Another Directory

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz -C another-folder

Example: tar -xzvf images.tar.gz -C restored – Extract files from the images.tar.gz file into an existing /restored folder

Used options:

-x – Extract
-z – compress or decompress
-v – list files processed
-f – specify filename
-C – Specify directory

List Files

tar -tvf archive.tar.gz

Used options:

-t – list files processed
-v – list files processed (with more info including file size and date modified)
-f – specify filename

For more options, type the tar --help command or visit GNU.org.