How to Extract or Unzip tar.gz Files in Linux

Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2. From videos to entire software packages, many files are compressed and stored using the .tar.gz format. While extracting a .tar.gz file isn’t quite as easy as unzipping a .zip, it’s still pretty straightforward. Extract all content with tar command, extract a specific file and list the files without extracting them.

Though both .zip and .tar.gz archive and compress files, they do so in different ways. In other words, .zip is a collection of compressed files, while .tar.gz is a compressed collection of files. Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed. In other words, .zip files are a collection of compressed files, while .tar files are a compressed collection of files. Where most operating systems make it easy to extract and create .zip files, the same can’t really be said for .tar files — at least not in ways that are easy to notice. Just like the more familiar .zip files, .tar files compress large files into a single package, making it easier to store and send them through email, servers, and so on.

Troubleshooting Common Errors

1. Put your knowledge to the test in our lightning-fast Ubuntu quiz!
2. You can create your own compressed .tar files using compression utilities such as gzip.
3. But with .zip being the easier of the two to use, why use .tar in the first place?
4. Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default.
5. This error occurs if you try to decompress a file without specifying a decompression utility, specifically -z for gzip.

For sending and storing, both .zip and .tar.gz files allows you to send relatively large packages as a single file. However, there are some pretty major differences when it comes to accessing data within the files and the compression efficiency. Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive. This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks.

Zip and unzip .tar and .tar.gz in Linux with gzip

And of course this is possible with the Linux how to buy stormx tar command, but firstly you need to check what is there inside the tarball without unpacking it. Here you can see that we are extracting the content of our archive into /tmp/temp.Jsuv directory instead of the current path. To extract a tar.gz or gz archive we need to use following set of arguments. This example uses example1.tar.gz in the Home directory.

If the command line isn’t your thing, there are plenty of user-friendly tools available to unzip tar.gz files. Thankfully, you don’t need how does cryptocurrency qualify to get on an exchange to be a 1960s computer technician to use and extract .tar files – nor do modern .tar files even have anything to do with old computers. A “.tar” file is a collection of files compressed into a single file or archive.

As you can see, both our gz archives are extracted. Ubuntu LTS (Long-Term Support) versions, known for their stability and extended support periods, are typically released every two years in April. These are popular for organizations and users who require a reliable and well-supported Ubuntu operating system. After reading this article, you know how what is the difference between ethereum and bitcoin to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools. Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types‌, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats.

Example-1: Extract tar.gz or .gz archive

We saw in the last example that by default tar will extract content into the current folder. If we want to specify the destination directory where the content should be extracted and kept then we need to use -C or –directory argument. As you can see, the contents of the archive are successfully extracted to the current folder. The Ubuntu logo, often called the “Circle of Friends,” comprises three people holding hands. It signifies the strong sense of community and interconnectedness at the core of Ubuntu’s philosophy. Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy and term originating from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

How to List Contents of .tar.gz File in Linux

Many are also available for Linux and macOS. You can also use –wildcards to extract all files with a certain extension or name. Any remotely modern version of tar should auto-detect that the archive is gzipped, and add “z” for you. For example, it goes without saying, that it is inadvisable to untar the whole large archive if you need for example to extract only a dingle file or a directory from it. The following article will help you to extract (unpack) and uncompress (untar) – tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 files from the Linux command line. Now that we know the content of our archive, we can extract myssh file from this archive without extracting other contents.