July 23, 2021

How to Extract Unzip tar.gz Files: Step-by-Step Windows and Linux Guide

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how to unzip a tar file

If you want to keep the original file after compression, there are two options. The first is the -k option, and the other uses the -c option to output the compressed what is ci cd continuous integration and continuous delivery explained file to a different file, preserving the original. After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools. It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu.

Compress an Entire Directory or a Single File

Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types‌, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats. It’s often useful to list the contents of a .tar.gz file without having to unzip the entire archive. The tar command also provides support for extracting only specific files or directories from a .tar.gz file. Simply add a space-separated list of the files you want to extract.

If you plan to distribute and store .tar.gz files on your website, Kinsta’s managed hosting services can help make the most of your space. Similar to the previous error, this error occurs when an archive was saved as a .tar despite not being a .tar archive. While there are many tools to choose from, the most popular include 7-Zip and WinZip.

How to List Contents of .tar.gz File in Linux

Just like the more familiar .zip files, .tar files compress large files into a single package, making it easier to store and who is vitalik buterin send them through email, servers, and so on. As a result, it has become a common file extension for many open-source software packages and other resources. You'll want to replace "tarfile" with the path to the tar.gz file that you're trying to extract. For a more detailed explanation on how the tar command works, be sure to read our guide to compressing and extracting files in the Linux Terminal.

What’s the difference between .tar and .tar.gz files?

While every tar.gz file is a .tar archive, not every .gz is a .tar file. The .gz extension represents the gzip compression format, which can be applied to almost any file format to compress data and save space. WinRAR is a popular file compression & archive utility software. If you're using a graphical Linux desktop, you could also use the file-compression utility or file manager included with your desktop to create or extract .tar files. On Windows, you can extract and create .tar archives with the free 7-Zip utility. Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed.

That means they maintain their original characteristics. This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression process, and the original files can be fully restored upon extraction. This format is common in the Unix/Linux world and is widely used to create compressed archives. But it does not compress the data, which results in a larger file size compared to compressed formats. Let’s try gzip compression while creating the tarball.

Troubleshooting Common Errors

You can easily extract .tar.gz files using third-party tools like 7 zip and Winrar on the Windows system. The files will be extracted to the selected location. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes. This is because most versions of tar allow both gnu and bsd style options (simplistically, gnu requires a hyphen, bsd doesn't). By default, the content of a tarball are extracted in the current directory.

  1. For this article, I want to demonstrate some of the common methods for archiving and compressing files using tar.
  2. For example, it goes without saying, that it is inadvisable to untar the whole large archive if you need for example to extract only a dingle file or a directory from it.
  3. Though we mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats.
  4. The easiest way to open a tar.gz file on Windows is to install an excellent free utility called 7-Zip, which can handle tar.gz and just about any other file format.
  5. Another common cause of errors is case sensitivity, where Linux treats “FILE” and “file” as two separate entities.
  6. The following command will extract the contents of archive.tar.gz to the current directory.

In other words, .zip files are a collection of compressed files, while .tar files are a compressed collection of files. You can create your own compressed .tar files 12 best bitcoin wallets in the uk 2021 using compression utilities such as gzip. Gzip is one of the most popular and available options, especially since it comes built in to most Linux distributions and macOS.

how to unzip a tar file

List contents of .tar.gz file in Linux

To extract all the files from a directory within a tar file use the following command. Note that the path is wrapped in quotation marks because there are spaces in the path. If we list the files in the Download directory we will see that another directory called Guitar Songs has been created. Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default.

how to unzip a tar file

A single file of 100 MB takes a lot less than transferring 100 files of 1 MB because of the file overhead. You may want to extract the contents of the archive to a specific directory. You can do so by appending the -C switch to the end of the command. For example, the following command will extract the contents of the archive.tar.gz file to the /tmp directory. Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats.

It was contained in the tar file, and was extracted along with the files. Of course, that’s not to say .tar files are some kind of “lesser” format than .zip. Rather, they both accomplish the same task (file compression) in the same way. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files. The extraction method is precisely the same for tar files that have compression, such as.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, and others. This saves network bandwidth, time and processing power while transferring the files.

Tar stands for "tape archive" and is GNU software originally developed for backing up data to tape drives. It is still used today for consolidating and compressing data. Archives created with tar are typically saved with a .tar extension and can also be compressed to save space, resulting in files like .tar.gz or .tar.bz2. Though both .zip and .tar.gz archive and compress files, they do so in different ways. In other words, .zip is a collection of compressed files, while .tar.gz is a compressed collection of files.

Instead of using the-z (gzip) option, we will use the -j (bzip2) option to unzip the bz2 file. Unlike Windows’ convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for unzipping .zip files, you need to use the tar utility through the command line. However, there are also many third-party tools you can install for a more user-friendly experience.

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