Tar Cheat Sheet

Compress a file or directory

tar -czvf name-of-archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory-or-file

• -c: Create a new archive. Arguments supply the names of the files to be archived. Directories are archived recursively, unless the —no-recursion option is given.
• -z: Use gzip.
• -v: Use archive file.
• -f: Specify the filename of the archive.

Extract an archive

tar -xvzf name-of-archive.tar.gz

• f: Specify archive file.
• z: Use gzip.
• x: Extract files from an archive.
• v: Verbosely list files processed.