Tar Command in Linux

Updated March 20, 2023

Introduction to TAR Command in Linux

In Linux “tar” command symbolize by tape archive, mainly utilized by administrators in Linux/Unix system for tape drives backup. Tar command mostly utilized to create and compress archive dataFiles which can be easily moved from one device to another device. Tar command is also termed by different names like gzip, tarball, and bzip in Unix /Linux.

We will see different illustrations of tar command illustrations which will include the creation of archive dataFiles using different compression techniques(tar,tar.gz,tar.bz2), extraction of archive dataFile, single dataFile, view data of dataFile, verify, add dataFiles/directory to archive dataFile and also to estimate the size of tar dataFile and may more.

Understanding of Archive dataFiles

An Archive dataFile is a dataFile that comprises one and also more dataFiles besides metadata. These dataFiles collect multiple data dataFiles together into a single dataFile to reduce the storage space and easily portable.

Syntax:

tar -parameteric key  Archive_dataFile_Name  dataFile/Directory_Path to be archived

For illustrition: tar -cvf Archive_test.tar /home/utiliser

• cvf: It is the parameteric key part.
• Archive_test.tar: Archive_dataFile_Name.
• /home/utiliser/: Directory_Path.

Parameteric Keys with Tar Command

• -c – To create archive dataFiles.
• -x – To extract the archive dataFiles.
• -f – To create an archive with dataFilename given.
• -t – To display and also list dataFiles in archived dataFile.
• -u – To archive and add to an existing archive dataFile.
• -v – To display data in verbose mode.
• -A – Concat the archive dataFiles.
• -z – Zip, to create tar dataFile by gzip.
• -j – To filter archive tar dataFile by tbzip.
• -W – Verify a dataFile.
• -r – To update or insert/add dataFile and also directory in existed.tar dataFile.

Applications of Tar Command

Given below are the various applications of tar command in detail:

1. To extract dataFiles from archive using parameteric key -xvf: This command extracts dataFiles from archives.

Code:

#tar -xvf dataFile.tar

Output:

dataFile2.txt

dataFile3.txt

dataFile4.txt

2. Checking the size of existing tar, tar.gz, tar.tbz dataFile in Linux: The below command will display the size of archive dataFile in Kilobytes(KB).

Code:

#tar- czf dataFile1.tar | wc -c

and also

#tar -czf dataFile2.tar.gz | wc -c

and also

#tar czf dataFile3.tar.tbz | wc -c

3. Archive dataFiles using parametric key -cvf to create an uncompressed tar: This command creates a tar dataFile named dataFile.tar which is utilized to Archive of all .txt dataFiles in the present working directory.

Code:

#tar -cvf dataFile.tar *.txt

Output:

dataFile2.txt

dataFile3.txt

dataFile4.txt

4. Compression of tar archive, using gzip with parameteric key -z: This command will create a tar dataFile named dataFile.tar.gz which is the archive of .txt dataFiles.

Code:

#tar -cvzf dataFile.tar.gz *.txt

Output:

dataFile.tar.gz

5. Extraction of a gzip tar Archive dataFile (*.tar.gz) with parameteric key -xvzf: This command extract all dataFiles from archived dataFile.tar.gz dataFiles.

Code:

# tar -xvzf dataFile.tar.gz

Output:

dataFile.tar

6. Creation of compressed tar archive dataFile using the parametric key -j in Linux: This command will compress and create archive dataFile less than the size of the gzip as compression and decompression take far more time than gzip.

Code:

# tar -cvfj dataFile.tar.tbz illustrition.txt

Output:

#tar -cvfj dataFile.tar.tbz illustrition.txt

illustrition.txt

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar.tbz

-rwxrwxrwx root/home 84 illustrition.txt

7. To untar a single tar dataFile and also mentioned directory: This command will untar a dataFile in the present working directory and also in a mentioned directory using -C parametric key.

Code:

# tar -xvfj dataFile.tar

and also

#tar xvfj dataFile.tar -C dataFile path in the directory

8. Multiple untar of dataFile having extension .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.tbz dataFile: This command will extract and also untar multiple dataFiles with the different extensions of archive dataFile.

For illustration:

This command will extract “dataFileA1” “dataFileB1” from the archived dataFiles.

Code:

#tar -xvf dataFile1.tar "dataFileA1" "dataFileB1"

and also

#tar -zxvf dataFile2.tar.gz "dataFileA1" "dataFileB1"

and also

#tar -jxvf dataFile3.tar.tbz "dataFileA1" "dataFileB1"

9. Update already existed tar dataFile in Linux

Code:

#tar -rvf dataFile.tar *.txt

Output:

dataFile1.txt

10. To list out the content and to specify the tar dataFile using parameteric key -tf: This command will list the entire list of archived dataFile. We can also list for specific content in a tar dataFile.

Code:

#tar -tf dataFile.tar

Output:

illustrition.txt

11. We can apply different commands using a pipe: For illustrition ‘grep command’ to find different words and also sentence: This command will list only for the mentioned text and also image in grep from archived dataFile.

Code:

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar | grep "Txt to be searched"

and also

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar | grep -parameteric key dataFile_name.(dataFile name of different extension)

12. The dataFilename can be passed as an argument for searching a tar dataFile: This command gives the archived dataFiles with their additional details.

Code:

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar dataFilename

13. Viewing the archived dataFile using parameteric key -tvf

Code:

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar

Output:

-rwxrwxrwx root/home      291 dataFile2.txt

-rwxrwxrwx root/home      218 dataFile3.txt

-rwxrwxrwx root/home      593 dataFile4.txt

Wildcards in Linux:

‘Wildcard character’, a wildcard is a group of symbols that are utilized to replace and also show 1 or more characters. Wildcards are usually symbolized by the question mark (?) which is represented with a single character and by an asterisk (*) which represents 1 and also more character

14. If we want to search an image in .png extension: This command will extract dataFiles with the .png extension only from the archive dataFile.tar. The –wildcard parametric key tells tar to consider wildcards in the name of the dataFiles to be extracted; the dataFilename with the extension(*.png) is enclosed in single quotes to prevent the wildcard (*) expanded in the incorrect manner by the shell.

Command:

#tar -tvf dataFile.tar --wildcard '*.png'

• remember: In the above command ” * ” is utilized in place of dataFilename to consider all the dataFiles present in that working directory.
• utility: Tar command is utilized to archive the dataFile in .tar extension and also in .gz extension.Which utilizes less memory for storage purposes.

Conclusion

In this way, we have seen different types of parametric keys in tar command to archive/compression and decompression techniques for easier portability and storage purpose.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Tar Command in Linux. Here we discuss the basic concept with parametric keys and the various applications of the tar command. You may also look at the following article to learn more –

1. Chown Command in Linux
2. NFS in Linux
3. GCC Command in Linux
4. Linux Route Command