HowTo: Open a Tar.gz File In Linux / Unix
by nixCraft onMay 5, 2012· 8 comments· LAST UPDATEDNovember 18, 2013
A.tar.gz(also.tgz) file is nothing but an archive. It is a file that acts as a container for other files. An archive can contain many files, folders, and subfolders, usually in compressed form using gzip or bzip2 program on Unix like operating systems.
Tutorial details | |
---|---|
Difficulty | Easy (rss) |
Root privileges | No |
Requirements | tar |
Estimated completion time | 2m |
Say hi to tar command line tool
You need to use the tar command which can create and manipulate archive files in .tar.gz under Unix like operating systems. Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type the following to open and extract a .tar.gz file:
tar -zxvf data.tar.gz
Where,
- -z : Uncompress the resulting archive with gzip command.
- -x : Extract to disk from the archive.
- -v : Produce verbose output i.e. show progress and file names while extracting files.
- -f data.tar.gz : Read the archive from the specified file called data.tar.gz.
By defaults files will be extracted into the current directory. To change the directory use -C option. In this example, extract files in /data/projects directory:
tar -zxvf data.tar.gz -C /data/projects
To view a detailed table of contents (list all files) for this archive, enter:
tar -tzvf data.tar.gz
Sample outputs:
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2981 2012-01-11 03:24 etc/adduser.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 6302 2012-01-11 04:46 etc/ca-certificates.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2969 2011-01-31 00:14 etc/debconf.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 600 2010-11-22 02:46 etc/deluser.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 346 2010-12-05 20:23 etc/discover-modprobe.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 8661 2011-12-31 21:45 etc/ffserver.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2940 2011-01-24 00:26 etc/gai.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 899 2009-08-31 12:51 etc/gssapi_mech.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 4794 2010-09-30 17:44 etc/hdparm.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 9 2006-08-07 22:44 etc/host.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 145 2010-08-26 08:09 etc/idmapd.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 882 2010-05-07 15:33 etc/insserv.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 31393 2007-10-21 13:50 etc/jwhois.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 144 2012-01-11 04:55 etc/kernel-img.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1180 2009-04-24 02:55 etc/kerneloops.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 34 2012-01-11 03:23 etc/ld.so.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 3587 2010-04-10 03:54 etc/lftp.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 26 2010-08-14 20:40 etc/libao.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 191 2010-06-18 19:54 etc/libaudit.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 599 2009-02-19 17:27 etc/logrotate.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 15752 2009-07-25 20:43 etc/ltrace.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 801 2011-06-20 08:24 etc/mke2fs.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 624 2010-02-15 10:09 etc/mtools.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 513 2012-01-11 04:53 etc/nsswitch.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 552 2010-10-19 22:22 etc/pam.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 7649 2012-01-11 04:53 etc/pnm2ppa.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2724 2010-08-08 01:33 etc/reportbug.conf
-rwxr-xr-x root/root 332 2012-05-05 14:14 etc/resolv.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2573 2012-04-06 00:00 etc/rsyslog.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 8596 2010-05-26 23:02 etc/sensors3.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 7093 2010-12-26 17:23 etc/smartd.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2089 2012-02-26 03:35 etc/sysctl.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 645 2009-03-25 16:35 etc/ts.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1260 2008-05-30 11:52 etc/ucf.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 274 2009-11-04 03:46 etc/updatedb.conf
-rw-r--r-- root/root 571 2010-11-11 20:13 etc/usb_modeswitch.conf
file-roller: GUI tool
You can use the Archive Manager GUI application to create, view, modify, or unpack an archive. You can start Archive Manager by clicking on
Applications menu > Choose Accessories > Archive Manager
To open an archive:
- Choose File.
- Open to display the Open dialog.
- Select the archive that you want to open.
- Click Open.
Once opened you can view or extract files. To select all files in an archive, choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A. To extract files from an open archive:
Select the files that you want to extract.
- Choose Archive > Extract to display the Extract dialog. Alternatively click Extract in the toolbar.
- Select the folder where Archive Manager extracts the files.
- Click Extract.
See tar(1) command man page for more information.