tar command examples

– tar is a very useful command in Linux to bundle files into one single file.

– It is very extensively used into various day-to-day operations by the Linux system administrators.

– Having knowledge of tar command is very indeed recommended.

Examples:

1. To create an archive

# tar -cvf test.tar test1 test2 test3 test4
# tar -cvf test.tar test*

# tar -cvf etc.bk /etc

2. To display the content of the tar ball

# tar -tvf test.tar

3. To extract the tar ball

# tar -xvf test.tar

4. To add / append a file into the tar ball

# tar –append -f test.tar test5

5. To delete / remove a files from the tar ball

# tar –delete -f test.tar test6

6. Extract single file from tar ball

# tar -xvf test.tar test4

# tar -xvf test.tar /tmp/test4

7. Extract multiple files from tar ball

# tar -xvf test.tar “test1” “test2”

8. Extract group of files from tar ball

# tar -xvf test.tar “*.test”

9. Add / append files or directories to tar ball

# tar -rvf test.tar /tmp

10. To verify the tar ball

# tar tvfW test.tar

11. Finding the difference between gzip archive file and file system

# tar -dvf test.tar.gz

12. Finding the difference between bzip2 archive file and file system

# tar -dvf test.tar.bz2

13. Creating a gzipped tar ball/archive

# tar -czvf test.tar.gz /tmp

14. Creating a bzip2 tar ball/archive

# tar -jcvf test.tar.bz2 /tmp

15. Extract gzip / bzip2 tar ball

# tar -xvf test.tar.gz

# tar -xvf test.tar.bz2

16. List the contents for gzip / bzip2 tar ball

# tar tvf test.tar.gz

# tar tvf test.tar.bz2

17. Extract single files from gzip / bzip2 tar archives

# tar -jxvf test.tar.bz2

# tar -zxvf test.tar.gz

18. Extract group of files from gzip / bzip2 tar archives

# tar -jxvf test.tar.bz2 –wildcards “test*”

# tar -zxvf test.tar.gz –wildcards “test*”

19. To take the backup of any file system

# tar -cvf etc.bk /etc
# tar -cvf tmp.bk /tmp
# tar -cvf var.bk /var

# tar cvf boot.bk /boot

20. To backup your system

# tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz –exclude=/backup.tar.gz –one-file-system /