There are many reasons why we might need to Tar files and directories, we might need to upload or download file to and from a server or application, archive files for later retrieval, whatever the reason here are a few helpful commands to get started.
“Taring” is simply a concept where we create a tarball of files and/or directories that are compressed and easier to manipulate and move within a system. Linux (most distros) and Mac have tar commands built into the operating system.
In the terminal a simple tar command might look like:
tar -czvf myphotos.tar.gz /path/to/photos
The above command will compress all files/ directories at the supplied path /path/to/photos into a single file with the given filename, myphotos.tar.gz.
Following the tar command we can pass a series of flags that tell the tar process how to compress the files and what information should be returned. Here is a breakdown of some of the more popular flags:
| Flag : | : Description |
|---|---|
-c |
Create a tar file (.tar.gz) |
-z |
Compression format, this will use .gzip (more common) |
-j |
Compression format, this will use .bz2 |
-v |
Verbose output, helpful for understanding and troubleshooting |
-f |
File to archive to |
-x |
Extract files from a tarball |
Examples:
Tar a single file
tar -czvf myphoto.tar.gz /path/to/special-photos/myphoto.png
Tar a directory of files
tar -czvf myphotos.tar.gz /path/to/photos
Tar multiple files/directories
tar -czvf myphotos.tar.gz /path/to/photos /another/path/to/photos /more/photos /path/to/special-photos/myphoto.png
Excluding files/directories
tar -czvf myphotos.tar.gz /path/to/photos --exclude="vacation"
View files in a tar file
This will list the files/directories contained within the tar file.
tar -ztvf myphotos.tar.gz
Extract files
tar -xzvf myphotos.tar.gz
Use the -C flag to extract files to a specific directory.
tar -xzvf myphotos.tar.gz -C ~/Desktop/
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