18 Tar Command Examples in Linux
The Linux
“tar” stands for tape archive, which is used by large number of Linux/Unix system administrators to deal with tape drives backup. The
tar command used to rip a collection of files and directories into highly compressed
archive file commonly called tarball or tar, gzip andbzip in Linux. The tar is most widely used command to create compressed
archive files and that can be moved easily from one disk to anther disk or
machine to machine.
Linux Tar Command Examples
In this
article we will going to review and discuss various tar command examples including how to create archive files using (tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2) compression, how to extract archive file, extract a single
file, view content of file, verify a file, add files or directories to archive
file, estimate the size of tar archive file, etc.
The main
purpose of this guide is to provide various tar command examples that might be helpful you to understand and become expert in
tar archive manipulation.
1. Create tar Archive File
The below
example command will create a tar archive file tecmint-14-09-12.tar for a directory /home/tecmint in current working directory. See the example command in
action.
# tar -cvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar
/home/tecmint/
/home/tecmint/
/home/tecmint/cleanfiles.sh
/home/tecmint/openvpn-2.1.4.tar.gz
/home/tecmint/tecmint-14-09-12.tar
/home/tecmint/phpmyadmin-2.11.11.3-1.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
/home/tecmint/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
Let’s
discuss the each option we have used in the above command for creating tar
archive file.
o c – Creates a new .tar archive file.
o v – Verbosely show the .tar file progress.
o f – File name type of the archive file.
2. Create tar.gz Archive File
To create
a compressed gzip archive file we use the option as z. For example the below command will create a compressed MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz file for the directory/home/MyImages. (Note : tar.gz and tgz both are similar).
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz
/home/MyImages
OR
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tgz
/home/MyImages
/home/MyImages/
/home/MyImages/Sara-Khan-and-model-Priyanka-Shah.jpg
/home/MyImages/RobertKristenviolent101201.jpg
/home/MyImages/Justintimerlakenaked101125.jpg
/home/MyImages/Mileynudephoto101203.jpg
/home/MyImages/JenniferRobert101130.jpg
/home/MyImages/katrinabarbiedoll231110.jpg
/home/MyImages/the-japanese-wife-press-conference.jpg
/home/MyImages/ReesewitherspoonCIA101202.jpg
/home/MyImages/yanaguptabaresf231110.jpg
3. Create tar.bz2 Archive File
The bz2 feature compress and create archive file less than the size
of the gzip. The bz2compression
takes more time to compress and decompress files as compared to gzip which takes less time. To create highly compressed tar file
we use option as j. The following example of command will create a Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 file for a directory /home/php. (Note: tar.bz2 and tbz is similar as tb2).
# tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php
OR
# tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tbz /home/php
OR
# tar cvfj Phpfiles-org.tar.tb2 /home/php
/home/php/
/home/php/iframe_ew.php
/home/php/videos_all.php
/home/php/rss.php
/home/php/index.php
/home/php/vendor.php
/home/php/video_title.php
/home/php/report.php
/home/php/object.html
/home/php/video.php
4. Untar tar Archive File
To untar
or extract a tar file, just issue following command using option x (extract). For
example the below command will untar the file public_html-14-09-12.tar in present working directory. If you want untar in a
different directory then use option as -C (specified directory).
## Untar files in Current Directory ##
# tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar
## Untar files in specified Directory ##
# tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar -C
/home/public_html/videos/
/home/public_html/videos/
/home/public_html/videos/views.php
/home/public_html/videos/index.php
/home/public_html/videos/logout.php
/home/public_html/videos/all_categories.php
/home/public_html/videos/feeds.xml
5. Uncompress tar.gz Archive File
To
Uncompress tar.gz archive file, just run following command. If would like to
untar in different directory just use option -C and the path of the directory, like we shown in the
above example.
# tar -xvf thumbnails-14-09-12.tar.gz
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/katdeepika231110.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/katrinabarbiedoll231110.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/onceuponatime101125.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/playbutton.png
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/ReesewitherspoonCIA101202.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/snagItNarration.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/Minissha-Lamba.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/Lindsaydance101201.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/Mileynudephoto101203.jpg
6. Uncompress tar.bz2 Archive File
To
Uncompress highly compressed tar.bz2 file, just use the following command. The below example
command will untar all the .flv files from the archive file.
# tar -xvf videos-14-09-12.tar.bz2
/home/public_html/videos/flv/katrinabarbiedoll231110.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/BrookmuellerCIA101125.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/dollybackinbb4101125.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/JenniferRobert101130.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/JustinAwardmovie101125.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/Lakme-Fashion-Week.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/Mileynudephoto101203.flv
/home/public_html/videos/flv/Minissha-Lamba.flv
7. List Content of tar Archive File
To list
the content of tar archive file, just run the following command with option t (list content). The
below command will list the content of uploadprogress.tar file.
# tar -tvf uploadprogress.tar
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
2276 2011-08-15 18:51:10 package2.xml
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
7877 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/examples/index.php
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
1685 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/examples/server.php
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
1697 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/examples/info.php
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
367 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/config.m4
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
303 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/config.w32
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
3563 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/php_uploadprogress.h
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
15433 2011-08-15 18:51:10 uploadprogress/uploadprogress.c
-rw-r--r-- chregu/staff
1433 2011-08-15 18:51:10 package.xml
8. List Content tar.gz Archive File
Use the
following command to list the content of tar.gz file.
# tar -tvf staging.tecmint.com.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root
0 2012-08-30 04:03:57 staging.tecmint.com-access_log
-rw-r--r-- root/root
587 2012-08-29 18:35:12 staging.tecmint.com-access_log.1
-rw-r--r-- root/root
156 2012-01-21 07:17:56 staging.tecmint.com-access_log.2
-rw-r--r-- root/root
156 2011-12-21 11:30:56 staging.tecmint.com-access_log.3
-rw-r--r-- root/root
156 2011-11-20 17:28:24 staging.tecmint.com-access_log.4
-rw-r--r-- root/root
0 2012-08-30 04:03:57 staging.tecmint.com-error_log
-rw-r--r-- root/root
3981 2012-08-29 18:35:12 staging.tecmint.com-error_log.1
-rw-r--r-- root/root
211 2012-01-21 07:17:56 staging.tecmint.com-error_log.2
-rw-r--r-- root/root
211 2011-12-21 11:30:56 staging.tecmint.com-error_log.3
-rw-r--r-- root/root 211 2011-11-20 17:28:24
staging.tecmint.com-error_log.4
9. List Content tar.bz2 Archive File
To list
the content of tar.bz2 file, issue the following command.
# tar -tvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/
-rw-r--r-- root/root
1751 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/iframe_ew.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
11220 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/videos_all.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
2152 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/rss.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
3021 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/index.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
2554 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/vendor.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
406 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/video_title.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
4116 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/report.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root
1273 2012-09-15 03:06:08 /home/php/object.html
10. Untar Single file from tar File
To
extract a single file called cleanfiles.sh from cleanfiles.sh.tar use the following command.
# tar -xvf cleanfiles.sh.tar cleanfiles.sh
OR
# tar --extract --file=cleanfiles.sh.tar
cleanfiles.sh
cleanfiles.sh
11. Untar Single file from tar.gz File
To
extract a single file tecmintbackup.xml from tecmintbackup.tar.gz archive file, use the command as follows.
# tar -zxvf tecmintbackup.tar.gz
tecmintbackup.xml
OR
# tar --extract
--file=tecmintbackup.tar.gz tecmintbackup.xml
tecmintbackup.xml
12. Untar Single file from tar.bz2 File
To
extract a single file called index.php from the file Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 use the following option.
# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
home/php/index.php
OR
# tar --extract
--file=Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 /home/php/index.php
/home/php/index.php
13. Untar Multiple files from tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 File
To
extract or untar multiple files from the tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 archive file. For example the below command will extract “file 1” “file 2” from
the archive files.
# tar -xvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar "file 1" "file 2"
# tar -zxvf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz
"file 1" "file 2"
# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 "file 1" "file 2"
14. Extract Group of Files using Wildcard
To
extract a group of files we use wildcard based extracting. For example, to extract a group of all
files whose pattern begins with .php from a tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 archive file.
# tar -xvf Phpfiles-org.tar --wildcards '*.php'
# tar -zxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.gz
--wildcards '*.php'
# tar -jxvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2
--wildcards '*.php'
/home/php/iframe_ew.php
/home/php/videos_all.php
/home/php/rss.php
/home/php/index.php
/home/php/vendor.php
/home/php/video_title.php
/home/php/report.php
/home/php/video.php
15. Add Files or Directories to tar Archive File
To add
files or directories to existing tar archived file we use the option r (append). For
example we add file xyz.txt and directory php to existing tecmint-14-09-12.tar archive file.
# tar -rvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar xyz.txt
# tar -rvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar php
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0 2012-09-15 02:24:21 home/tecmint/
-rw-r--r-- root/root
15740615 2012-09-15 02:23:42 home/tecmint/cleanfiles.sh
-rw-r--r-- root/root
863726 2012-09-15 02:23:41 home/tecmint/openvpn-2.1.4.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root
21063680 2012-09-15 02:24:21 home/tecmint/tecmint-14-09-12.tar
-rw-r--r-- root/root
4437600 2012-09-15 02:23:41 home/tecmint/phpmyadmin-2.11.11.3-1.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
-rw-r--r-- root/root
12680 2012-09-15 02:23:41
home/tecmint/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- root/root 0 2012-08-18 19:11:04
xyz.txt
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2012-09-15 03:06:08
php/
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1751 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/iframe_ew.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root 11220 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/videos_all.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2152 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/rss.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root 3021 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/index.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2554 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/vendor.php
-rw-r--r-- root/root 406 2012-09-15
03:06:08 php/video_title.php
16. Add Files or Directories to tar.gz and tar.bz2 files
The tar
command don’t have a option to add files or directories to a existing
compressed tar.gzand tar.bz2 archive file. If we do try will get tbe following error.
# tar -rvf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz xyz.txt
# tar -rvf Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 xyz.txt
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
xyz.txt
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
17. How To Verify tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 Archive File
To
verfify any tar or compressed archived file we use option as W (verify). To do,
just use the following examples of command. (Note : You cannot do verification on a compressed ( *.tar.gz, *.tar.bz2 ) archive file).
# tar tvfW tecmint-14-09-12.tar
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
tar: VERIFY FAILURE: 30740 invalid headers detected
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root
863726 2012-09-15 02:23:41 /home/tecmint/openvpn-2.1.4.tar.gz
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root
21063680 2012-09-15 02:24:21 /home/tecmint/tecmint-14-09-12.tar
tar: /home/tecmint/tecmint-14-09-12.tar: Warning: Cannot
stat: No such file or directory
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root
4437600 2012-09-15 02:23:41
home/tecmint/phpmyadmin-2.11.11.3-1.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
tar: /home/tecmint/phpmyadmin-2.11.11.3-1.el5.rf.noarch.rpm:
Warning: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root 12680 2012-09-15 02:23:41
home/tecmint/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
tar: /home/tecmint/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm:
Warning: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root 0 2012-08-18 19:11:04 xyz.txt
Verify drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2012-09-15 03:06:08 php/
18. Check the Size of the tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 Archive
File
To check
the size of any tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 archive file, use the following command. For example the
below command will display the size of archvie file in Kilobytes (KB).
# tar -czf - tecmint-14-09-12.tar | wc -c
12820480
# tar -czf - MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz | wc
-c
112640
# tar -czf - Phpfiles-org.tar.bz2 | wc -c
20480
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