tar - Archive Files in Linux
From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · Compression & Archives · verified Jul 2026
tar - Archive Files
Create and extract tar archives (tape archives)
bash
# Create archive
tar -cvf archive.tar files/
# Create compressed archive
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz files/ # gzip
tar -cjvf archive.tar.bz2 files/ # bzip2
# Extract archive
tar -xvf archive.tar
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz
# List contents
tar -tvf archive.tar
# Extract to directory
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz -C /destination/✅ c=create, x=extract, v=verbose, f=file, z=gzip, j=bzip2
💡 .tar.gz is most common compressed format
🔍 -C extracts to specific directory
⚡ Remember: "eXtract Ze Files" for -xzf
archivetarcompression