tar

The tar (tape archive) command is used to combine multiple files and directories into a single archive file, often called a tarball. It can also integrate with compression tools like gzip and bzip2 to compress the archive.

Basic Syntax

tar [OPTION...] [FILE]...

Common Options

Option	Description
-c, --create	Create a new archive.
-x, --extract	Extract files from an archive.
-t, --list	List the contents of an archive.
-v, --verbose	Verbosely list files processed.
-f, --file=ARCHIVE	Use archive file or device ARCHIVE.
-z, --gzip	Filter the archive through gzip.
-j, --bzip2	Filter the archive through bzip2.
-J, --xz	Filter the archive through xz.

Real-world Examples

1. Create an uncompressed archive of a directory:

   tar -cvf backup.tar /path/to/directory

2. Create a gzip-compressed archive:

   tar -czvf backup.tar.gz /path/to/directory

3. Extract a gzip-compressed archive:

   tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

4. List contents of an archive without extracting:

   tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz