LINUX: TAR COMMANDS - VIEW, EXTRACT, CREATE, SEARCH - USEFUL AND HANDY COMMANDS

TAR COMMAND TO CREATE TGZ FILE

tar -cvzf <filename>.tgz /<directory-filename-to-tar>/

TAR COMMAND TO CREATE TAR FILE

tar -cvzf <filename>.tar /<directory-filename-to-tar>/

TAR COMMAND TO VIEW THE CONTENTS OF THE TAR FILE

tar -tvf <filename>.tar

 

TAR COMMAND TO VIEW THE CONTENTS OF THE TAR GZ FILE

tar -tvf <filename>.tgz

 

TAR COMMAND TO EXTRACT THE CONTENTS OF THE TAR GZ FILE

tar -xvzf <filename>.tgz

 

TAR COMMAND TO EXTRACT THE CONTENTS OF THE TAR FILE

tar -xvzf <filename>.tar

 

TAR COMMAND TO EXTRACT THE CONTENTS OF THE TAR FILE TO SPECIFIC DIRECTORY

tar -xvf <tarfilename>.tar -C <destination directory>

 

TAR COMMAND TO SEARCH AND EXTRACT MULTIPLE FILE PATTERNS IN TAR FILE

tar -xvf <filename>.tar --wildcards --no-anchored 'file1*' 'file2*' 'file3*' .... 'fileN*'

  

TAR COMMAND TO SEARCH AND EXTRACT PARTICULAR DIRECTORY IN TAR FILE 

tar -xvf test.tar --wildcards --no-anchored 'test-dir'

Above command will extract just test-dir directory from test.tar file

TAR COMMAND TO SEARCH AND EXTRACT PARTICULAR FILE/DIRECTORY IN TAR FILE TO PARTICULAR DIRECTORY

tar -xvf test.tar -C /test-dir --wildcards --no-anchored 'testfile1' 

Above command will just extract directory or file by name testfile1 from test.tar tar file under /test-dir directory.
 

TAR COMMAND TO SEARCH AND EXTRACT PARTICULAR FILE/DIRECTORY WITHOUT DIRECTORY STRUCTURE FROM TAR FILE

tar -xvf test.tar --transform='s/.*\///' --wildcards --no-anchored 'testdir1' 

Above command will just extract testdir1 directory contents from test.tart file without any hierarchy directories structure in extracted folder. For e.g. lets assume test.tar file has structure as app/u01/testdir1/ and files under it. Above command will just extract all the files under app/u01/testdir1/ directory and not create hierarchy directory structure app/u01/testdir1/ under extracted directory 

---

Products to which Article Applies

All Linux Operating System 

Search Keywords: linux unix tar taring tarring command commands extract extracting zip zipping unzip unzipping view viewing create creating bundle gunzip compress compressed search searching particular file files directory directories structure hierarchy

Article Author: Tarun Boyella