The .gz or .bz2 extension suffix indicates that the archive has been compressed, using either the gzip or bzip2 compression algorithm. The tar command will work happily with both types of file, so it doesn’t matter which compression method was used — and it should be available everywhere you have a Bash shell. You just need to use the appropriate tar command line options. You’ll encounter them frequently while using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or even while using the terminal on macOS.
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, ecxx secures rmo sandbox approval to launch asset it works recursively. You can notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory. You can also add the verbose output option (-v) to provide detailed listings, including dates, securities/permissions, and more. After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools.
As we see later, different compression utilities may require different methods for extracting and unzipping files. Though we mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats. You’ll want to replace “tarfile” with the path to the tar.gz file that you’re trying to extract. For a more detailed explanation on how the tar command works, be sure to read our guide to compressing and extracting files in the Linux Terminal. The tar command is extremely powerful, and you can do things like list or search for files in a tar archive, or extract a single file. And now you can use the 7-Zip File Manager to open, view, or extract files from tar.gz and other archives.
gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
In this guide, you will learn how to extract or unzip .tar.gz files in Linux. Any remotely modern version of tar should auto-detect that the archive is gzipped, and add “z” for you. As the files are extracted, they are listed in the terminal window. The -C option is used to specify a different directory other than the current working directory.
The -so and -si flags denote Standard Output and Standard Input. The first part of the command writes the archive.tar file to the standard output. The second command reads the archive.tar file from the standard input and compresses it accordingly. If the file is a bzip2-compressed file, replace the “z” in the above commands with a “j”.
- Here are a few frequently asked questions we commonly hear from users working with .tar.gz files.
- This specifies you want to extract an archive instead of create one.
- This simplifies file management and reduces the risk of data loss during transfers.
- Many of the downloadable Linux/Unix files found on the internet are compressed using a tar.gz format.
- Files from the ignored directories are still extracted, but the directory structure is not replicated on your hard drive.
While there are many tools to choose from, the most popular include 7-Zip and WinZip. While slightly different, they are quite lightweight and cryptocurrency wallet guide for beginners 2020 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. Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
.tar.gz Files
Most Linux distributions ship with a preinstalled archive manager. Decompressing TAR and TAR.GZ files is only a matter of few clicks using the GUI. Similarly, you can unzip specific directories from the archive as well.
However, tar was unable to find FILE within .tar.gz, meaning that the user either misspelled the name or that the file simply doesn’t exist in filename.tar.gz. Another common cause of errors is case sensitivity, where Linux treats “FILE” and “file” as two separate entities. This error occurs when trying to extract specific files or directories from a .tar.gz file using tar. If the command line isn’t your thing, there are plenty of user-friendly tools available to unzip tar.gz files.
How to extract and unzip .tar.gz files (for Linux and Windows)
Note that the path is wrapped in quotation marks because there are spaces in the path. People new to the .tar format usually equate it to a .zip archive, but a tar archive is not compressed. Tar collected all the files into one package, but the files can be compressed with separate utilities.
You can combine both steps into a single command as well. The c, v, z, and f flags used in the aforementioned command stand for Create, Verbose, gzip, and Filename. Once you’ve done this successfully, you’ll notice that the icon for tar.gz files will change to a 7-Zip icon. You may also be interested in learning about the best WinZip alternatives to compress files. Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms.
Using the tar Utility
If you’re using a graphical Linux desktop, you could also use the file-compression utility or file manager included with your desktop to create or extract .tar files. On Windows, you can extract and create .tar archives with the free 7-Zip utility. While every tar.gz file is a .tar archive, not every .gz is a .tar file.
The name “Tar” stands for “Tape Archiver” because it was used to place data on storage tapes when tar was invented. The tar program takes one or more files and “wraps” them into a self-contained file. Locate the compressed archive file and right-click on it to bring up the menu.
Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy and term originating from South Africa and Zimbabwe. If you find this article helpful or have additional ideas, please use win to usd the comment box below. This simplifies file management and reduces the risk of data loss during transfers.
The number represents how many levels of directories to ignore. Files from the ignored directories are still extracted, but the directory structure is not replicated on your hard drive. So far we’ve just taken a leap of faith and extracted the files sight unseen. You can review the contents of a tar file before you extract it by using the -t (list) option. It is usually convenient to pipe the output through the less command.
