Linux tar Command with Useful Practical Examples

GNU tar (Tape ARchive) saves multiple files together into a single tape or disk archive, and can restore individual files from the archive. Here are some Linux tar Command with Useful Practical Examples

Some useful command line switches are given below, which are used in this article.

c => create an archive file.
v => show the detailed output ( or porgress ) of command.
x => extract an archive file.
f => filename of archive file.
z => Use archive through gzip.
t => viewing content of archive file.
j => Use archive through bzip2.
C => Use of define destination directory.
W => Verify a archive file.

Example 1: Create a .tar Archive File.

Below command will create an compressed ( tar ) file using all files and directories ( with subdirectories ) of /var/log directory.

# tar cvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar /var/log

Example 2: Create a .tar.gz Archive File.

Below command will create an gzip compressed ( tar.gz ) file using all files and directories ( with subdirectories ) of /var/log directory. I will create more compressed file than .tar file.

# tar czvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.gz /var/log

Example 3: Create a .tar.bz2 Archive File.

This example is used for creating bz2 files. bz2 files are higher compressed than .tar and .tar.gz files. Its also take more time to compress than others.

# tar cjvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.bz2 /var/log

Check difference between .tar , .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 file sizes.

# ls -l tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar*
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 26818560 Apr 12 22:25 tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   697802 Apr 13 00:25 tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.bz2
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  1091399 Apr 13 00:26 tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.gz

As per above output .tar.bz2 is higher compressed and .tar is lower compressed file.

Example 4: List content of .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 Archive File.

Some times we requried to list content of archive file without extracting them. Below example will help you to do it.

# tar -tvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar
# tar -tvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.gz
# tar -tvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar.bz2

Example 5: Uncompress .tar Archive File.

To uncompress a .tar file use below command. It will extract all files and directories ( with subdirectories ) in current path. To uncompress in different location check Example 8.

# tar -xvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar

Example 6: Uncompress .tar.gz Archive File.

To uncompress a .tar.gz ( tar + gzip ) file use below command. It will extract all files and directories in current path.

# tar -xvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar

Example 7: Uncompress .tar.bz2 Archive File.

Use below example to uncompress a .tar.bz2 ( tar + bz2 ) file. It will extract all files and directories in current path.

# tar -xvf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar

Example 8: Extract Archive in different location.

Use C command line switch to specify a location for extracting an archive file.

# tar xf tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar -C /Output/Dir/

Example 9: Verify .tar Archive Files.

To verify .tar file use ‘W’ switch with ‘t’. For you information .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 can not be verified using this. Use below command to verify your tar file.

# tar tvWf /root/tecadmin-16-apr-2013.tar

Sample Output:

tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: VERIFY FAILURE: 13 invalid headers detected
Verify -rw------- root/root         0 2013-03-31 03:50 var/log/spooler-20130407
Verify -rw------- root/utmp       384 2013-04-12 21:31 var/log/btmp
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root    211614 2013-03-18 19:20 var/log/dracut.log
Verify -rw------- root/root      5793 2013-04-12 22:20 var/log/secure
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root      4952 2013-04-01 14:40 var/log/krb5kdc.log-20130401
Verify drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2011-12-08 06:00 var/log/spice-vdagentd/
Verify drwx------ root/root         0 2013-04-12 14:57 var/log/samba/
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root         0 2013-04-09 01:58 var/log/samba/log.192.168.1.199
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root      1972 2013-04-12 14:37 var/log/samba/log.nmbd
var/log/samba/log.nmbd: Mod time differs
var/log/samba/log.nmbd: Size differs
Verify -rw------- root/utmp       384 2013-03-18 20:26 var/log/btmp-20130401
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root      1382 2013-04-11 13:53 var/log/kadmind.log
Verify drwxrwx--T root/gdm          0 2013-04-11 13:53 var/log/gdm/
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root         0 2013-04-11 13:53 var/log/gdm/:0-slave.log
Verify -rw-r--r-- gdm/gdm        1387 2013-04-05 17:07 var/log/gdm/:0-greeter.log.1
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root     18983 2013-03-25 14:10 var/log/gdm/:0.log.3
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root     19028 2013-04-05 17:06 var/log/gdm/:0.log.1
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root     18983 2013-03-22 15:42 var/log/gdm/:0.log.4
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root        98 2013-04-05 17:07 var/log/gdm/:0-slave.log.1
Verify -rw-r--r-- root/root     18983 2013-04-11 13:53 var/log/gdm/:0.log
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Due to long list of output, some of output has been hidden in above command output.

References: Use below reference for more details
http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/tar.html