If you plan to distribute and store .tar.gz files on your website, Kinsta’s managed hosting services can help make the most of your space. However, while tools like 7-Zip are free, many more “robust” solutions are only available for a price after a trial period. As a result, we recommend sticking to free (but trustworthy) tools or simply using the command line.

How to Compress and Extract Files Using the tar Command on Linux

You may want to extract the contents of the archive to a specific directory. You can do so by appending the -C switch to the end of the command. For example, the following command will extract the contents of the archive.tar.gz file to the /tmp directory. 7-Zip is a free and open-source tool with high compression ratios & supports a wide range of archive formats.

These files can be used in incremental backup strategies – where only new or modified files are added to the archive. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes. It just bundles files & directories together while preserving their file structure and metadata.

1. Creating archives is an important step when you’re backing up your Linux file system.
2. The Ubuntu logo, often called the “Circle of Friends,” comprises three people holding hands.
3. Alternatively, you can also specify a source and destination file path when using the tar utility.

You may also be interested in learning about the best WinZip alternatives to compress files. Once you’ve done this successfully, you’ll notice that the icon for tar.gz files will change to a 7-Zip icon. While there are many tools to choose from, the most popular include 7-Zip and WinZip. While slightly different, they are quite lightweight and offer a much simpler alternative to using the command line. To access the Windows command line, search for “command prompt” or “cmd” in the search bar.

Decompressing TAR and TAR.GZ files is only a matter of few clicks using the GUI. It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu. You can easily extract .tar.gz files using third-party tools like 7 zip and Winrar on the Windows system. You can notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory.

This means it takes all the specified files and puts them together into one container. Tar.gz has become the standard format used for distributing Linux and open source software since it’s easy to extract on basically any platform that isn’t Windows. The output shows a newly created archive example1.tar.gz.

Deepin Linux 23 Released, Here’s What’s New

In a GUI, right-click the archive you want to extract and select “Extract.” Many of the downloadable Linux/Unix files found on the internet are compressed using a tar.gz format. Therefore, knowing how to open or untar tar.gz files is very useful. Use the following command to compress an entire directory or a single file on Linux. It’ll also compress every other directory inside a directory you specify — in other words, it works recursively.

In the shell, you can add a file or directory to a tar archive as long as it is not compressed. If your archive has been compressed, you must uncompress it, but you do not need to unarchive it. Most of the Linux files that can be downloaded from the Internet are compressed with a tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 compression formats and it is important to know how to extract such files. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files.

The tar format is just a format, and it’s an open format, so it can be created by more than just one what is the meaning of memo debit tool. And of course this is possible with the Linux tar command, but firstly you need to check what is there inside the tarball without unpacking it. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

They were officially introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, released in April 2016. It’s the same as the archive creation command we used above, except the -x switch replaces the -c switch. This specifies you want to extract an archive instead of create one. Just list as many directories or files as you want to back up.

Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms. Once you’ve selected the right file, you’ll see “7-Zip File Manager” show up in the select app dialog. If you want 7-Zip to always handle tar.gz files in the future, you’re going to want to select the “Always” button at the bottom of the dialog. Once you’ve downloaded and installed 7-Zip, double-click on the tar.gz file that you’re trying to open, and then select “Choose an app on your PC” from the popup dialog that shows up. Similar to the previous error, this error occurs when an archive was saved as a .tar despite not being a .tar archive.

What are .tar and .tar.gz files?

Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time. The tar command also provides support for extracting only specific files or directories from a .tar.gz file. Simply add a space-separated list of the files you want to extract. This command extracts (-x) the file (-f) specified (in this case, filename.tar.gz) to the current directory. Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2. Though gzip is the most common compression utility, it’s not the only one.

How to Extract tar.gz File in Linux by Using the Command Line

The command extracts files to a new directory called example1, which is located in the current directory. Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types‌, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats. 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 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. This is good and pretty comprehensive, Seth.One thing to point out is that, since .jpg and .png files are already compressed, you won’t get much compression with gzip. If you’ve received a tarball from a friend or a software project, you can extract it in either your GUI desktop or in a shell.

Extracting archives

As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. The Dolphin file manager offers a feature to autodetect whether the files extracted from an archive are contained in a directory or if a new directory needs to be created for them. I use this option so that when I extract files from a tarbomb, they remain tidy and contained.