top 21 Tar commands in Linux | List of commands

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top 21 Tar commands in Linux | List of commands

You might know about ZIP, RAR files widely used archive file format, used to compress multiple files and formats together into a single file. Similarly, tar is a computer software UNIX-based utility for combining multiple files into a single archive (tar, gz, tgz, bz2, tbz, tb2) tar is also known as Tape Archive. It is mostly used by developers and Linux users in place of ZIP and RAR format.

It is used to back up the system and is widely used for distributing the larger files in highly compressed format. The tar archives are often used in computer software to store the custom database chunks. Let's see some commonly used lists of tar commands.

Tar Usage and the Options we should know
c – create an archive file.
C – specified directory
f – filename of the archive file.
t – viewing the content of the archive file.
j – filter archive through bzip2.
z – filter archive through gzip.
x – extract an archive file.
v – Verbosely show the .tar file progress.
v – show the progress of the archive file.
r – append or update files or directories to the existing archive files.
W – Verify an archive file.
z – To create a compressed gzip archive file

In this blog we will discuss all the tar commands. Related topics are listed below:
- CREATE archive (tar, tar.gz, and tar.bz2)
- compression
- extract archive file
- extract a single file
- view content of the file
- verify a file
- add files or directories to the existing archive file,
- estimate the size of tar archive file
- split tar file
- iso to multiple tar archive
- Join multiple splitted tar arcive in a single file

CREATE tar Tar commands in Linux

$ tar -cvf FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tar /path/to/files

CREATE tar.gz

$ tar -cvfz FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tar.gz /path/to/files

$ tar -cvfz FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tgz /path/to/files

CREATE tar.bz2 Highly compressed

$ tar -cvfj FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tar.bz2 /path/to/files

$ tar -cvfj FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tar.tbz /path/to/files

$ tar -cvfj FILE_TO_BE_CREATED.tar.tb2 /path/to/files

untar files in current directory

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2

untar files in specified Directory

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar -C /path/to/files

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz -C /path/to/files

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2 -C /path/to/files

untar single file

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

$ tar -xvfz FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

$ tar -xvfj FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2 SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

untar single file, using verbose arguments

$ tar --extract --file=FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

$ tar --extract --file=FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.bz2 SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

$ tar --extract --file=FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz SINGLE_FILE_WITH_ANY_FILE_EXTENSION

untar multiple files from tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar "FILE_TWO" "FILE_TWO"

$ tar -xvfz FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz "FILE_TWO" "FILE_TWO"

$ tar -xvfj FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2 "FILE_TWO" "FILE_TWO"

untar group of file using wildcard

$ tar -xvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar --wildcards 'WILDCARD_TO_BE_USED'

$ tar -xvfz FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar --wildcards 'WILDCARD_TO_BE_USED'

$ tar -xvfj FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar --wildcards 'WILDCARD_TO_BE_USED'

list content of tar archive file

$ tar -tvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar

$ tar -tvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz

$ tar -tvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2

add files in tar, gz, bz2

$ tar -rvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar FILE_TO_BE_ADDED_WITH_ANY_EXTENSION.abc

$ tar -rvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz FILE_TO_BE_ADDED_WITH_ANY_EXTENSION.abc

$ tar -rvf FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2 FILE_TO_BE_ADDED_WITH_ANY_EXTENSION.abc

verify file

$ tar -tvfW FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar

$ tar -tvfW FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.gz

$ tar -tvfW FILE_TO_BE_UNTARRED.tar.bz2

1. CREATE tar Archive File in Linux

$ tar -cvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar /home/tecmint/

2. CREATE tar.gz Archive File in Linux

 $ tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz /home/MyImages

 $ tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tgz /home/MyImages

3. CREATE tar.bz2 Archive File in Linux

 $ tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php

 $ tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tbz /home/php

 $ tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tb2 /home/php

4. Untar tar Archive File in Linux

 #Untar files in Current Directory
 $ tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar

 #Untar files in specified Directory
 $ tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar -C /home/public_html/videos/

5. Uncompress tar.gz Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -xvf thumbnails-14-09-12.tar.gz

6. Uncompress tar.bz2 Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -xvf videos-14-09-12.tar.bz2

7. List Content of tar Tar commands in Linux Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -tvf uploadprogress.tar

8. List Content tar.gz Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -tvf staging.tecmint.com.tar.gz

9. List Content tar.bz2 Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -tvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2

10. Untar Single file from tar File in Linux

 $ tar -xvf cleanfiles.sh.tar cleanfiles.sh

 $ tar --extract --file=cleanfiles.sh.tar cleanfiles.sh

11. Untar Single file from tar.gz File in Linux

 $ tar -zxvf tecmintbackup.tar.gz tecmintbackup.xml

 $ tar --extract --file=tecmintbackup.tar.gz tecmintbackup.xml

12. Untar Single file from tar.bz2 File in Linux

 $ tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 home/php/index.php

 $ tar --extract --file=Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php/index.php

13. Untar Multiple files from tar, tar.gz, and tar.bz2 File

 $ tar -xvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar "file1" "file2"

 $ tar -zxvf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz "file1" "file2"

 $ tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 "file1" "file2"

14. Extract Group of Files using Wildcard in Linux

 $ tar -xvf Phpfiles-org.tar --wildcards '*.php'

 $ tar -zxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.gz --wildcards '*.php'

 $ tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 --wildcards '*.php'

15. Add Files or Directories to tar Archive File in Linux

 $ tar -rvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar xyz.txt

 $ tar -rvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar php

16. Add Files or Directories to tar.gz and tar.bz2 Files

 $ tar -rvf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz xyz.txt

 $ tar -rvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 xyz.txt

17. How To Verify tar, tar.gz, and tar.bz2 Archive File

 $ tar tvfW tecmint-14-09-12.tar

18. Check the Size of the tar Tar commands in Linux, tar.gz, and tar.bz2 Archive File in Kilobytes (KB)

 $ tar -czf - tecmint-14-09-12.tar | wc -c

 $ tar -czf - MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz | wc -c

 $ tar -czf - Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 | wc -c

19. How to Split Large tar Archive into Multiple Files of Certain Size (-b is used to specify the file size to split)

#file home.tar.bz2
$ split -b 10M home.tar.bz2 "home.tar.bz2.part"

 $ ls -lh home.tar.bz2.parta*

20. Solit ISO file in multiple parts
#CREATE an archive file of a Linux Mint ISO image file.

 $ tar -cvzf linux-mint-18.tar.gz linux-mint-18.iso

#Check file size
$ ls -lh linux-mint-18.tar.gz

#split
$ split -b 200M linux-mint-18.tar.gz "ISO-archive.part"

21. How to Join Tar Files After Splitting

 $ cat home.tar.bz2.parta* >backup.tar.gz.joined

This was it for the day in

top 21 tar commands in Linux

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