tar & gzip example

Archive a Directory

Make a directory on your system and create a text file:
```
mkdir testdir && touch testdir/example.txt
```
Use tar to archive the directory:
```
tar -cvf testdir.tar testdir/
```
Check for the newly archived tar compressed file:
```
ls
```
```
tesdir  testdir.tar
```

Compression with gzip

Compress files in Linux using gzip:
```
gzip testdir.tar
```
Checking for the output file will show:
```
ls
```
```
testdir  testdir.tar.gz
```
The chained file extension (.tar.gz) indicates that this is a compressed archive. You can see the difference in size between the two files, before and after compression:
```
ls -l --block-size=KB
```
```
total 9kB
drwxrwxr-x 2 vps vps 5kB Jan 30 13:13 testdir
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vps vps 1kB Jan 30 13:29 testdir.tar.gz
```

Extract a Tarball

Extract the directory:

tar -xzvf testdir.tar.gz

testdir/
testdir/test.txt

The flags used in these examples stand for:

c: Create a new archive in the form of a tar file.
v: Verbose flag, outputs a log after running the command.
z: Zips or unzips using gzip.
x: Extracts a file from the archive.
f: Defines STDOUT as the filename or uses the next parameter.

Common Options for Compressing and Archiving Files in Linux

Additional flags used with the tar command are:

Flag	Function
-A	Append tar files to an existing archive.
-d	Show differences between an archive and a local filesystem.
-delete	Delete from the archive.
-r	Append files to the end of an archive.
-t	List the contents of an archive.
-u	Append but don’t overwrite the current archive.

These are the basics for working within the command line. Be sure to check the man pages man tar for a more detailed listing of possible flags when compressing and extracting files.

https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/archiving-and-compressing-files-with-gnu-tar-and-gnu-zip/

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