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How to Extract a tar.gz File Using Command Line in Ubuntu

By June 24, 2021August 29th, 2024Cryptocurrency News

To access the should i bank on cryptocurrency 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. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We appreciate your decision to leave a comment and value your contribution to the discussion.

If you find this article helpful or have additional ideas, please use the comment box below. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. For more information and to schedule a live demo, contact a hosting expert from Kinsta today. And of course this is possible with the Linux tar command, but firstly you need to check what is there inside the tarball vpn software comparison without unpacking it. Once you choose the directory, click the Select button in the top right corner.

How to untar tar.gz files

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. In this guide, we shall take a look at how to extract tar files to a specific or different directory, where you want the files to reside. Tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files in a single file (an archive), and to manipulate such archives.

How to Extract or Unzip .tar.gz Files in Linux

As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. In the first example, I will extract the files in articles.tar to a directory /tmp/my_article. Always make sure that the directory into which you want to extract the tar file exists. To unzip the .tar.gz files, you’ll need to use specific commands and tools depending on your operating system. Let’s explore the extraction process for both Linux & Windows platforms. Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space.

Extract Files from a .tar.gz via GUI

Ubuntu versions are usually named using an alliterative adjective and an animal name, both starting with the same letter. Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy and term originating from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Most Linux distributions come with the tar command pre-installed by default.

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. Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats. Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix.

  1. The tar program takes one or more files and “wraps” them into a self-contained file.
  2. Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time.
  3. Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms.
  4. Or, if you want to use absolute path you can run the following command.

That means users can download and use it for free during a trial period. Also, its trial version does not have time limitations, and users can still use it even after the trial period has expired, with occasional reminders to purchase the license. The files will be extracted to the selected location. Ubuntu Core is a minimalistic and immutable version explicitly designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems. The -C option is used to specify a different directory other than the current working directory. The name “Tar” stands for “Tape Archiver” because it was used to place data on storage tapes when tar was invented.

That means they maintain their original characteristics. This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression process, and the original files can be fully restored upon extraction. Perhaps you might also be interested in learning how to unzip files in Linux. This error occurs if you try to decompress a file without specifying a decompression utility, specifically -z for gzip.

You can notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory. Snaps were developed by Canonical, how i hacked tinder accounts using facebooks account kit and earned $6250 in bounties the company behind Ubuntu, to package and distribute software focusing on security, sandboxing, and ease of installation and updates. They were officially introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, released in April 2016.

.tar vs .tar.gz Files

Short for “Tape ARchive,” the name “TAR” is a throwback to when files were stored on magnetic tape drives. If you want to extract the files to a location other than the current directory, you’ll need to specify a target directory using the -c option (specified directory). On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files.

Thankfully, you don’t need to be a 1960s computer technician to use and extract .tar files – nor do modern .tar files even have anything to do with old computers. The following article will help you to extract (unpack) and uncompress (untar) – tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 files from the Linux command line. You’ll notice that you don’t need to use the -z option to list the files. You only need to add the -z option when you’re extracting files from a .tar.gz file. After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools. The command extracts files to a new directory called example1, which is located in the current directory.

It’s easy to get confused when navigating between .tar, .tar.gz, and .gz – not to mention zipping and unzipping them. Here are a few frequently asked questions we commonly hear from users working with .tar.gz files. In this example, the user tried to extract the file titled “FILE” from filename.tar.gz. 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.

It contains compiled binaries, libraries, configuration files, and metadata required to install and manage software on a Ubuntu system. 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 open most .tar.gz files using the tar command built in to Linux, macOS, and Windows 10. If you’re not comfortable with the terminal or command line, third-party tools such as 7-Zip offer a more user-friendly alternative.

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