How to Extract Unzip tar.gz Files: Step-by-Step Windows and Linux Guide
This is because most versions of tar allow both gnu and bsd style options (simplistically, gnu requires a hyphen, bsd doesn’t). Ubuntu LTS (Long-Term Support) versions, known for their stability and extended support periods, are typically released every two years in April. These are popular for organizations and users who require a reliable and well-supported Ubuntu operating system.
Short for “Tape ARchive,” the name “TAR” is a throwback to when files were stored on magnetic tape drives. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files. In Linux, users have multiple ways to extract .tar.gz files – through the terminal and graphical file archivers. The extraction method is precisely the same for tar files learn how to become a security specialist software development that have compression, such as.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, and others.
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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. Knowing how to unzip a .tar.gz file allows users to extract and access the archives’ contents efficiently. This error occurs if you try to decompress a file without specifying a decompression utility, specifically -z for gzip.
How to List Contents of .tar.gz File in Linux
Most of the time, you will get your hands on a compressed package that needs extracting. On Linux, there are multiple ways to unzip compressed archives. To do this we’ll use almost exactly the same command as before but with one important difference. The .bz2 extension suffix tells us it has been compressed using the bzip2 command. Instead of using the-z (gzip) option, we will use the -j (bzip2) option to unzip the bz2 file. The .gz or .bz2 extension suffix indicates that the archive has been compressed, using either the gzip or bzip2 compression algorithm.
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 notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory.
- Most Linux distributions ship with a preinstalled archive manager.
- Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats.
- To extract a single file, provide the path and the name of the file.
- Here are a few frequently asked questions we commonly hear from users working with .tar.gz files.
- Gzip is one of the most popular and available options, especially since it comes built in to most Linux distributions and macOS.
Using the tar Utility
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. Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default. You can use the -C option to extract to a different directory (in this case, /home/user/files). A GZ file is nothing but a file compressed using the gzip algorithm. You can use the official GNU gzip utility to extract the content of the compressed archive file.
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. Perhaps you might also be interested in learning how to unzip files in Linux. But it does not compress the data, which results in a larger file size compared to compressed formats. To do so, simply pass the file names with choose your own investment the default command. File compression is a great way to save storage on a computer. If you’re familiar with packages in Linux, you may have come across a TAR or a TAR.GZ file.
If we list the trading tutorials and platform video guides 2020 files in the Download directory we will see that another directory called Guitar Songs has been created. Files that have a .tar.gz or a .tar.bz2 extension are compressed archive files. A file with just a .tar extension is uncompressed, but those will be very rare.
Unzip TAR and TAR.GZ Files With 7-Zip
When the archive is extracted, these attributes are restored. The command extracts files to a new directory called example1, which is located in the current directory. You can easily unzip the resulting .tar.gz file with the decompress (-d) option. But with .zip being the easier of the two to use, why use .tar in the first place? The next section shows how .tar comes with a few extra features that make it the better compression format for certain files and applications.
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