Therefore, knowing how to open or untar tar.gz files is very useful. The aforementioned command will extract the archive.tar.gz file to the /Downloads folder. The -p (parents) option causes mkdir to create any parent directories that are required, ensuring the target directory is created. After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools.
DEB is the native and most common package format Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions use. It contains compiled binaries, libraries, configuration files, and metadata required to install and manage software on a Ubuntu system. Perhaps you might also be interested in learning how to unzip files in Linux. If you want to unzip the files to a different folder, click on the Extract To option. Choose the appropriate location and click Select to extract the file to that location.
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. Of course, that’s not to say .tar files are some kind of “lesser” format than .zip. Rather, they both accomplish the same task (file compression) in the same way. People new to the .tar format usually equate it to a .zip archive, but a tar archive is not compressed.
Zip and unzip .tar and .tar.gz in Linux with gzip
In general, though, gzip and bzip2 are practically the same thing, and both will work similarly. 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. To extract all the files from a directory within a tar file use the following command. Note that the path is wrapped in quotation marks because there are spaces in the path. Notice that we don’t need to use the -z option to list the files.
The easiest way to open a tar.gz file on Windows is to install an excellent free utility called 7-Zip, which can handle tar.gz and just about any other file format. We’ve been recommending this app for years, and it’s one of the first things that we install whenever reinstalling Windows. In this guide, you will learn how to extract or unzip .tar.gz files in Linux. But with .zip being the easier of the two to use, why use .tar in the first place?
If the file is a bzip2-compressed file, replace the “z” in the above commands with a “j”. Gzip is faster, but it generally compresses a bit less, so you get a somewhat larger file. Bzip2 is slower, but it compresses a bit more, so you get a somewhat smaller file. Gzip is also more common, with some stripped-down Linux systems what is lbl including gzip support by default, but not bzip2 support.
How to Install Docker Desktop on Linux Mint 22
This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks. Sometimes you need to view the content of a tar file as it collects many files and ensures if a specific file is present. You can choose which files to extract from the archive. To do so, simply pass the file names with the default command.
How to Compress and Extract Files Using the tar Command on Linux
This example uses example1.tar.gz in the Home directory. The output shows a newly created archive example1.tar.gz. how to buy bitcoins in uk Similar to the previous error, this error occurs when an archive was saved as a .tar despite not being a .tar archive.
However, there are some pretty major differences when it comes to accessing data within the files and the compression efficiency. A “.tar” file is a collection of files compressed into a single file or archive. Short for “Tape ARchive,” the name “TAR” is a throwback to when files were stored on magnetic tape drives. Click on the Extract Here option to unzip the content of the file. The system will extract all the files to your current directory by default. For TAR.GZ files, you will have to unzip the compressed archive to TAR, and then further extract the TAR file using 7-Zip.
- With the command prompt open, use the appropriate commands to change the current working directory (cd) to the location of the .tar.gz file you want to unzip.
- Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats.
- Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed.
- For TAR.GZ files, you will have to unzip the compressed archive to TAR, and then further extract the TAR file using 7-Zip.
- Likewise, we don’t need the -j option to list the files in a tar.bz2 file.
You’ll encounter them frequently while using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or even while using the terminal on macOS. Here’s how to extract — or untar — the what is bitcoin what you need to know contents of a tar file, also known as a tarball. Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space. Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz are more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip. With the command prompt open, use the appropriate commands to change the current working directory (cd) to the location of the .tar.gz file you want to unzip. Alternatively, you can also specify a source and destination file path when using the tar utility.
