System
tar
tar commands for archiving and compression.
25 commands
Windows
MacOS
Linux
#compression
#archiving
Create Archives
Create an archive from files
tar cf archive.tar file1 file2
Archive an entire directory
tar cf archive.tar /path/to/dir
Archive relative to a directory
tar cf archive.tar -C /path dir
Exclude files by pattern
tar cf archive.tar --exclude="*.log" dir/
Extract Archives
Extract archive to current directory
tar xf archive.tar
Extract to a specific directory
tar xf archive.tar -C /target/dir
Extract a single file from archive
tar xf archive.tar file.txt
Extract gzip compressed archive
tar xf archive.tar.gz
Extract bzip2 compressed archive
tar xf archive.tar.bz2
Extract xz compressed archive
tar xf archive.tar.xz
List Contents
List files in an archive
tar tf archive.tar
List files in a gzip archive
tar tf archive.tar.gz
List files with detailed info
tar tvf archive.tar
Compression Options
Create gzip compressed archive
tar czf archive.tar.gz dir/
Create bzip2 compressed archive
tar cjf archive.tar.bz2 dir/
Create xz compressed archive
tar cJf archive.tar.xz dir/
Archive and extract over SSH
tar czf - dir/ | ssh user@host "tar xzf - -C /dest"
Advanced
Append a file to an existing archive
tar rf archive.tar newfile.txt
Update archive with newer files
tar uf archive.tar dir/
Compare archive with filesystem
tar --diff -f archive.tar
Create timestamped backup
tar czf backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz dir/
Archive files newer than a date
tar czf archive.tar.gz --newer="2024-01-01" dir/
Quick Commands
Create a gzip-compressed tar archive
tar czf archive.tar.gz dir/
Extract a gzip-compressed tar archive
tar xf archive.tar.gz
List the contents of a tar archive
tar tf archive.tar