We can see that the Ukulele Songs directory contains directories called Random Songs, Ramones and Possibles. You may also be interested in learning about the best WinZip alternatives to compress files. Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms.
You can notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory. This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression process, and the original files can be fully restored upon extraction. You can also add the verbose output option (-v) to provide detailed listings, including dates, securities/permissions, and more.
Is .gz a .tar file?
If we want to extract the files to a location other than the current directory, we can specify a target directory using the -C (specified directory) option. If we list the files in the Download directory we will see that another directory called Guitar Songs has been created. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files.
Only extract specific files or directories from .tar.gz in Linux
File compression is a great how do you value a company based on financial statements way to save storage on a computer. If you’re familiar with packages in Linux, you may have come across a TAR or a TAR.GZ file. While experienced users know what is a TAR file and how to extract it, Linux newbies might face some difficulties in figuring out what to do with it.
Most file managers, such as Nautilus, Dolphin, or Thunar, support extracting tar.gz files by right-clicking on the file and choosing the Extract option from the context menu. You can also choose the destination directory where you want to extract the files. To extract a tar.gz file using the tar command, you need to use the -x option, which tells tar to extract the files from the 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. Though gzip is the most common compression utility, it’s not the only one. As you might imagine, using a different compression utility on a .tar file will result in a different double extension. Some common examples include .tar.bz2 (bzip2), .tar.br (Brotli), and .tar.zst (zstd), among many others.
It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu. You can easily extract .tar.gz files using third-party tools like 7 zip and Winrar on the Windows system. But it does not compress the data, which results in a larger file size compared to compressed formats. You can easily unzip the resulting .tar.gz file with the decompress (-d) option. Any remotely modern version of tar should auto-detect that the archive is gzipped, and add « z » for you.
A tar.gz file is a compressed archive format commonly used in Linux systems to combine multiple files and directories into a single file while reducing their size. It combines the tar utility for archiving and the gzip utility for compression. Knowing how to extract or unzip a tar.gz file allows users to access and manipulate the archives’ contents efficiently. 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. The .tar portion of the file extension stands for tape archive, and is the reason that both of these file types are called tar files.
These files can be used in incremental backup strategies – where only new or modified files are added to the archive. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes. It just bundles files & directories together while preserving their file structure and metadata. This means it takes all the specified files and puts them together into one container. 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. However, while tools like 7-Zip are free, many more “robust” solutions are only available for a price after a trial period.
The -v option makes the tar command more verbose and prints the details of each file, such as permissions, owner, size, and modification date. If you only want to see the file names, you can omit the -v option. Click on the Extract Here option to unzip the content of the file. The system will extract all the files to your current directory by default. For TAR.GZ files, you will have to unzip the compressed archive to TAR, and then further extract the TAR file using 7-Zip. The -so and -si flags denote Standard Output and Standard Input.
How to Extract or Unzip .tar.gz Files in Linux
You also learned how to list the contents of a tar.gz file and how to create your own tar.gz archives. By default, tar extracts the archive contents in the current working directory. If you want to extract the files to a different directory, you can use the -C option, which tells tar to change the directory before extracting the files. You need to specify the path to the directory where you want to extract the files after the -C option. There are several ways to extract or unzip a tar.gz file in Linux, depending on the tool you have available or prefer to use. The most common and widely supported method is to use the tar command, which can handle various compression formats, including gzip.
Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats. Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. With the command prompt open, use the appropriate commands to change the current working directory (cd) to the location of the .tar.gz file you want to unzip. Alternatively, you can also specify a source and destination file path when using the tar utility. Unlike Windows’ convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for unzipping .zip files, you need to use the tar utility through the command line.
- Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive.
- Use the –exclude flag to specify the names of the files that you don’t want to extract.
- Apart from occupying less space on your system storage, compressed archives utilize less server bandwidth when downloaded by multiple users.
- This simplifies file management and reduces the risk of data loss during transfers.
- To extract a tar.gz file using an archive manager, you need to open the file with the archive manager and then click on the Extract button.
The number represents how many levels of directories to ignore. Files from the ignored directories are still extracted, but the directory structure is not replicated on your hard drive. So far we’ve just taken a leap of faith and extracted the files sight unseen.
For example, the following command will extract the contents of the archive.tar.gz file to the /tmp directory. In Linux, users have multiple ways to extract .tar.gz files – through the terminal and graphical file archivers. The extraction method is precisely the same for tar files that have compression, such as.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, and others.
Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive. This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks. DEB is the native and most common package format Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions use. It contains compiled binaries, libraries, configuration files, and metadata required to install and manage software on a Ubuntu system. Sometimes you need to view the content of a tar file as it collects many files and ensures if a specific file is present. If you want to unzip the files to a different folder, click on the Extract To option.