However, while tools like 7-Zip are free, many more “robust” solutions are only available for a price after a trial period. As a result, we recommend sticking to free (but trustworthy) tools or simply using the command line. While there are many tools to choose from, the most popular include 7-Zip and WinZip. While slightly different, they are quite lightweight and offer a much simpler alternative to using the command line. To access the Windows command line, search for “command prompt” or “cmd” in the search bar. Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option.

Extract Files to the Current Directory

If the file you’re looking at is a TAR.GZ, using either tar or 7-Zip to extract the file will be a much simpler cloud security vendors choice. The -so and -si flags denote Standard Output and Standard Input. The first part of the command writes the archive.tar file to the standard output.

How to Unzip or Extract TAR and TAR.GZ

The tar command is extremely powerful, and you can do things like list or search for files in a tar archive, or extract a single file. Just like the more familiar .zip files, .tar files compress large files into a single package, making it easier to store and send them through email, servers, and so on. As a result, it has become a common file extension for many open-source software packages and other resources.

Unlike Windows’ convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for unzipping .zip files, you need to use the tar utility through the command line. However, there are also many third-party tools you can install for a more user-friendly experience. Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time. 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. Technical details aside, all you need to remember is that .zip files are more accessible but less space-efficient, while .tar files are less accessible but more space-efficient.

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Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. The Ubuntu logo, often called the “Circle of Friends,” comprises three people holding hands. It signifies the strong sense of community and interconnectedness at the core of Ubuntu’s philosophy. Canonical released its first official version of the OS, Ubuntu 4.10, codenamed ‘Warty Warthog’ in October 2004. Canonical released its first official version of the OS, Ubuntu 4.10, codenamed ‘Warty Warthog’ in October 2004. Ubuntu is a Southern African philosophy and term originating from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

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. Tar files date all the way back to 1979 when the tar command was created to allow system administrators to archive files onto tape. Forty years later we are still using the tar command to extract tar files on to our hard drives. Someone somewhere is probably still using tar with tape. While gzip compression is most frequently used to create .tar.gz or .tgz files, tar also supports bzip2 compression.

1. The aforementioned command will extract the archive.tar.gz file to the /Downloads folder.
2. If you don’t want the directory structure in the tar file to be recreated on your hard drive, use the –strip-components option.
3. The most often used algorithm for compressing tar files is Gzip.
4. The first is the -k option, and the other uses the -c option to output the compressed file to a different file, preserving the original.

You can also use –wildcards to extract all files with a certain extension or name. Any remotely modern version of tar should auto-detect that the archive is gzipped, and add “z” for you. The -C option is used to specify a different directory other than the current working directory. Locate the compressed archive file and right-click on it to bring up the menu. Most Linux distributions ship with a preinstalled 6 ways to get free bitcoin in 2021 guide archive manager.

Once you choose the directory, click the Select button in the top right corner.

Tar collected all the files into one package, but the files can be compressed with separate utilities. 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. It’s often useful to list the contents of a .tar.gz file without having to unzip the entire archive. A GZ file is nothing but a file compressed using the gzip algorithm. You can use the official GNU gzip utility to extract the content of the compressed archive file.

We only need to add the -z option liquid crypto gold when we’re extracting files from a .tar.gz file. Likewise, we don’t need the -j option to list the files in a tar.bz2 file. Files that have a .tar.gz or a .tar.bz2 extension are compressed archive files. A file with just a .tar extension is uncompressed, but those will be very rare.