File archiving

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The following commands and utilities are commonly used in Linxu for file archival, including file compression (zip), file packaging (tar), and extracting files (unzip).


1 File archival

Command Function
bzip2, bunzip2 Creating or extracting files with .bz2 extension.
gzip Zipping and unzipping utility
gzip, gunzip Creating or extracting zipped files
rar Creating or extracting files with .rar extension.
rpm Creating or extracting files with .rpm extension.
rsync -a /home /backups/ Synchronize /home to /backups/home
rsync -avz /home server:/backups/ Synchronize files/directories between the local and remote system with compression enabled
tar Utility for archiving or compressing files, or extracting files (derived from ‘tape archive’)
more Check whether a tar archive starts with a directory
uncompress file.Z Uncompress a compress .Z or .tar.Z file
unzip -l file.zip Display the content of zip archive file
uuencode, uudecode Creating or extracting files with .Z extension.
zcat file View zipped files
zcat *.Z | tar -xvf - Uncompress and extract a .tar.Z file
zip, unzip -v Create or extract files in zip format


2 Compressing / archiving files or directories

Command Function
tar -cf archive.tar dir Create tar named archive.tar containing contents of a directory
tar -cf file.tar files Create a tar archive from specified files
tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 dir Create a tar file with bzip2 compression
tar -cvf Compress file(s) as a tar archive (with verbose output)
tar -czf compressed_file.tar.gz Compress files as gzip archive
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /dir –exlcude=*.txt Compress a directory but exclude a file or filetype
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /dir –exlcude=/dir/subdir Compress a directory but exclude a subdirectory
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /dir OR file Compress a file or directory into an archive
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /dir1 /dir2 Compress two or more directories into an archive
tar -rvf file.tar file2.txt Add a file to a tar file
zip -d file.zip file4.txt Delete a file from a zip file
zip -u file.zip file4.txt Add a file to a zip file
zip file.zip file Compress a single file to a zip
zip file.zip file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt Compress multiple files to a zip


3 Extracting files

Command Function
gzip -d file.gz Unzip file.gz
gzip file Zip file to a compressed file with the gz extension, file.gz
tar -xf archive.tar Extract the contents from an archive
tar -xjf archive.tar.bz2 Extract a bzip2 compressed tar file.
tar -xvf Extract a tar archive
tar -xvf file.tar Uncompress a tar file
tar -xvf file.tar file1.txt Untar a single file from a tar file
tar -xvfj file.tar.bz2 Extract a bzip2 file
tar -xvfz file.tar.gz Extract files and directories from a gzipped tar file
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz Extract a gzip compressed tar file.
tar -xzf my_archive.tar.gz Extract a compressed tar file inside a gzip archive
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz -C / dir Unzip a file to a specific directory
tar -zxvf file.tar.gq Unzip and extract a tar archive
unzip file.zip Unzip a file
unzip file.zip -d dir Unzip a file to a specific directory


4 File archive flags

Command Function
c create archive
f specify filename
j bzip2 compre­ssion
k do not overwrite
t table of contents
t table of contents of archive
v verbose
w ask for confir­mation
x extract
z use zip/gzip



5 See also