Day 23/ 30 Days of Linux Mastery: 'tar' Command

Introduction
What is the tar Command?
Core tar Commands
Real-World Scenario: tar Command
Conclusion
Let's Connect

Introduction

Welcome back to Day 23 of this practical Linux challenge! Today, we are diving into one of the most useful Linux commands: tar.

When you think of archiving and backing up files, think of tar

What is the `tar` Command?

tar stands for Tape Archive. It is a powerful utility used to create, extract, compress, and archive files or directories into a single file, usually with .tar, .tar.gz, or .tgz extensions.

Core `tar` Commands

More commonly used tar command options are listed in the table below.

`tar` Command	What It Does	Explanation
`tar -cvf myarchive.tar myfolder/`	Creates an archive	`-c` = create, `-v` = show progress (verbose), `-f` = name the archive file
`tar -xvf myarchive.tar`	Extracts an archive	`-x` = extract files from the archive
`tar -czvf myarchive.tar.gz myfolder/`	Creates a compressed archive using gzip	`-z` = compress with gzip
`tar -xzvf myarchive.tar.gz`	Extracts a `.tar.gz` archive	`-x` = extract, `-z` = unzip gzip file
`tar -tvf myarchive.tar`	Lists archive contents	`-t` = list files inside the archive
`tar -xvf myarchive.tar file.txt`	Extracts a specific file	Only pulls out `file.txt` from the archive
`tar -C /target/folder -xvf myarchive.tar`	Extracts to a specific directory	`-C` = change to target directory before extracting
`tar --delete -f myarchive.tar file.txt`	Deletes a file from the archive (non-compressed only)	Removes file.txt from the `.tar` file (Does not work on `.tar.gz`)

Real-World Scenario: `tar` Command

Select a file you wish to archive. Add .tar to the filename.

tar -cvf demologs.txt.tar
ls -lh   # to confirm it compressed

Verify the file is created

 tar -tvf demologs.txt.tar

Restore the tar file.

mkdir demoarchives     - # we create a separate folder to move our archives 

tar -xvf demologs.txt.tar.gz -C demoarchives  - # restores the .tar to original file format 
ls -lh   # to confirm both the original and compressed file are there

Conclusion

By now, you have seen how to create, extract, compress, and manage archives with tar. You also understand the most useful options (-c, -x, -v, -f, -z, -t, --delete) and how to combine them based on what you are trying to achieve.

Keep experimenting in your terminal. Start by archiving test directories and extracting them to specific locations. The more hands-on you get, the more confident you will become. Stay curious. Stay hands-on.

If this is helpful to you, feel free to bookmark, comment, like and follow me for Day 24!

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Amanda Igwe @amandaigwe