How to compress, Decompress, Archive and backup files in Linux

In this tutorial we will go through about how to compress, Decompress, Archive and backup files in Linux. Let’s first go through the basic concept of archiving and compressing of file. Let’s take an example of a site containing thousands of files and directories and we want to take the backup of files. Packing of all the files in the single file is called as archiving. After this we will compress the files in order to save some space. This is called as compressing. In this way we have the second copy of the data which can be used for recovering the data in case if the original files get corrupted or deleted.

How to use tar command to archive and unarchive the files and directories:

The term tar stands for tape archive. There was a time when we used to keep backup on magnetic tapes and tar was used to prepare the data to save on this tapes. This way the tar name was originated. And tar is still a popular tool to pack all the directories and files into the single file that can be copied from one place to another. The files usually have an extension .tar to specify that it is a tar file. The permissions of the files are also saved in the tar file. This is the general syntax of tar file:

tar [option] [tar_file_name] [name_of_file_to_be_archived]

Command to create the tar file:

In order to pack the files using the tar command we can use this command:

tar --create --file archive.tar file1

OR

tar -cf archive.tar file1

OR

tar cf archive.tar file1

If we want to create the tar file for the directory then we can simply give the path of the directory instead of file.

tar -cf archive.tar /path/to/directory

If we want to make an archive file of current directory then we can use this below command:

tar -cf archive.tar *

Command to add a file to the tar file:

We can also add the files in the tar file later and this can be done with the help of below command:

tar --append --file archive.tar file2

OR

tar -rf archive.tar file2

OR

tar -rf archive.tar file2

Command to list the files in tar file:

In order to check the content of tar file we can use this command:

tar --list --file archive.tar

OR

tar -tf archive.tar

OR

tar tf archive.tar

Command to extract the archived tar files:

If we want to extract the tar files then we can use below command:

tar --extract --file archive.tar

OR

tar -xf archive.tar

OR

tar xf file.tar

If we want to extract the tar file in the specific directory then it can also be done using the below command:

tar -xf archive.tar -C /path/to/directory

OR

tar -xf archive.tar --directory /path/to/directory

How to use tar command to compress and decompress the files and directories:

Compressing the files not only helps us in reducing the size of the files but also helps when we are transferring the files from one place to another. Most Linux systems typically come with at least three compression tools pre-installed: Gzip, bzip2, and xz. We can use simple zip command to compress the files for different utilities.

gzip file

bzip2 file

xz file

This will give us the output like this:

file.gz
file.bz2
file.xz

Similarly to decompress the files we can use this command:

gunzip file

OR

gzip --decompress file

bunzip2 file

OR

bzip2 --decompress file.bz2

unxz file

OR

xz --decompress file.xz

We can use the above compressing utilities along with the tar command to archive and zip the files using the single command:

For GZIP along with tar we can use below command:

tar --create --gzip --file archive.tar.gz file

OR

tar -czf archive.tar.gz file

OR

tar czf archive.tar.gz file

For Bzip2 along with tar we can use below command:

tar --create --bzip2 --file archive.tar.bz2 file

OR

tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 file

OR

tar cjf archive.tar.bz2 file

For xz along with tar we can use below command:

tar --create --xz --file archive.tar.xz file1

OR

tar -cJf archive.tar.xz file

OR

tar cJf archive.tar.xz file

Similarly in order to decompress and unarchive the files using the single tar command we can use this:

For gzip

tar -xzf archive.tar.gz

For bzip2

tar -xjf archive.tar.bz2

For xv

tar -xJf archive.tar.xz

The archiving and compressing of the files are common in taking the backups of the file and storing the backup in remote locations and is one of the most common command used by system administrators. Hope after this article you got the basic understanding of how to How to compress, Decompress, Archive and backup files in Linux. For more informative blogs on Linux do visit our site: Simplealltech.com to learn more about Linux. Happy Learning.