A tutorial on 'tar'

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Parent page: Archiving and compressing files

Using `tar` to archive files and directories

The primary archiving utility on Linux and Unix-like systems is the tar command. It will bundle several files or directories and generate a single file called an archive file or tar file, or humorously a tarball. By convention an archive file has .tar as the file name extension. When you archive a directory with tar, it will, by default, include all the files and sub-directories contained within it, and sub-sub-directories contained in those, and so on. So the command tar --create --file project1.tar project1 will pack all the content of directory project1 into the file project1.tar. The original directory will remain unchanged, so this may double the amount of disk space occupied!

You can extract files from an archive file using the same command with a different option:tar --extract --file project1.tar. If there is no directory with the original name, it will be created. If a directory of that name exists and contains files of the same names as in the archive file, they will be overwritten. Another option can be added to specify the destination directory where to extract the archive's content.

Compressing and decompressing

The tar archiving utility can compress an archive file at the same time it creates it. There are a number of compression methods to choose from. We recommend either xz or gzip, which can be used as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar --create --xz --file project1.tar.xz project1
[user_name@localhost]$ tar --extract --xz --file project1.tar.xz
[user_name@localhost]$ tar --create --gzip --file project1.tar.gz project1
[user_name@localhost]$ tar --extract --gzip --file project1.tar.gz

Typically, --xz produces a smaller compressed file (i.e. with a better compression ratio) but takes longer and uses more RAM while working [1]. --gzip does not typically compress as much, but may be used if you encounter difficulties due to insufficient memory or excessive run time during tar --create.

You can also run tar --create first without compression and then use the commands xz or gzip in a separate step, although there is seldom a reason to do so. Similarly, you can run xz -d or gzip -d to decompress an archive file before running tar --extract, but again this is seldom necessary.

Once a tar file is created, it is also possible to use gzip or bzip2 to compress the archive and reduce its size. The compressing utilities are used as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ gzip project1.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 project1.tar

These commands will produce the files project1.tar.gz and project1.tar.bz2.

Common options

Here are the most common options for this command. There are two synonymous forms for each, a single-letter form prefixed with a single dash, and a whole-word form prefixed with a double dash:

-c or --create: Create a new archive.
-f or --file=: Following is the archive file name.
-x or --extract: Extract files from archive.
-t or --list: List the content of an archive file.
-J or --xz: Compress or decompress with xz.
-z or --gzip: Compress or decompress with gzip.

Single-letter options can be combined with a single dash, so for example: tar -cJf project1.tar.zx project1 is equivalent totar --create --xz --file=project1.tar.xz project1.

There are many more options for tar, but these may depend on the version you are using. You can get a complete list of the options available on your system with man tar or tar --help. Note in particular that some older systems might not support --xz compression.

Examples

To illustrate the use of archiving and compressing utilities, we use a working directory that contains the following sub-directories and files [bin/ documents/ jobs/ new.log.dat programs/ report/ results/ tests/ work]. Your working directory may look very different but the idea is the same and this directory is used as a working example.

Archiving files and directories

Archiving a directory

Perhaps the most common use of tar is to create an archive of a single directory. Let us take, for example, a directory named results and create from it an archive file named results.tar. On your terminal type:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf results.tar results
results
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Using ls, command we can see the new tar file created:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/

In this example, we have invoked the tar command with the options c (for create), v (for verbosity) and f (for file). As for the archive's name, we have used results.tar; this name could be something else but it is better to have a similar name to the directory to archive. It makes it easier to recognize your data later.

More than one directory or files can be placed in a tar file. For example, to place the directories results, report and documents into an archive file called full_results.tar, we can proceed as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf full_results.tar results report documents/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
report/
report/report-2016.pdf
report/report-a.pdf
documents/
documents/1504.pdf
documents/ff.doc

Since the v option was used, the files added to the archive are shown. Those details could be hidden if v was not used.

To check out the created archive, use ls:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  full_results.tar  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/

Archiving files or directories that start with a particular letter

In our working directory, we have two directories that start with "r" (report, results). In this example, we put together the content of these directories into one single archive [archive.tar].

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf archive.tar r*
report/
report/report-2016.pdf
report/report-a.pdf
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Note: Here, we have put together all the directories that start with r. Similar command can be used for files or directories that have a chain of characters [for example: *r*, *.dat, ... etc].

Adding (appending) files to the end of an archive

The -r option is used to add files to existing archives without having to create new ones or unpack the archive and run tar again to create the new archive. Here is a quick example: let us add the file new.log.dat to the archive results.tar

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -rf results.tar new.log.dat

Here, the tar command added the file new.log.dat at the end of the archive results.tar.

To check out use the previous options to list the files in the tar file:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:36 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-20 11:16 new.log.dat

Note: Files cannot be added to compressed archives (*.gz or *.bz2). Files can only be added to plain tar archives.The -r option in the tar command is also used to append or add a directory or directories to existing tar file. Let us add the directory report to the archive results.tar from our previous example:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -rf results.tar report/

Let us now check the resulting tar file:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:36 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-20 11:16 new.log.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 report/
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-2016.pdf
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-a.pdf

Note: Again, the -v option is not necessary if you do not want to show the details of the files.

Combining two archive files into one

As we can add a file to archive it is possible to add an archive to another archive. This can be done by invoking the -A option. Let us add the archive report.tar (for the directory report) to the existing archive results.tar.

Check out the existing archive:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  report.tar  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ ar -tvf results.tar
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-20 16:16 results/log1.dat
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Now, we add the archive and check out the resulting new archive:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -A -f results.tar report.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-20 16:16 results/log1.dat
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 report/
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-2016.pdf
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-a.pdf

In the above example, we have used the command tar with -A {for append} (tar -A -f results.tar report.tar) to add the archive report.tar to the archive results.tar as you can see from the comparison of output of the command (tar -tvf results.tar) before and after the append operation.

Note: The options -A, --catenate, --concatenate are equivalent (depending on the system you are using, some options may not be available).The previous command can also be used as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -A -f full-results.tar report.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -A --file=full-results.tar report.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ tar --list --file=full-results.tar

Note: There are two possibilities to add an archive archive_2.tarto anotherarchive_1.tar. The first one is to use -r as seen previously when add a regular file to an existing archive. In this case, the added archive [archive_2.tar] is seen like a regular file added to an existing archive. The option -tvf will reveal that the added archive appears at the end of the archive as a file. A second possibility consists on using the -A option. In this case, the added archive does not appear as an archive. This command create a new archive as we have used tar command to the original directories.

Excluding particular files

From our previous example, let us create the archive results.tar for the directory results but without the files that have '".dat" as extension. This can be done by adding the option: --exclude=*.dat

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ ls results/
log1.dat  log5.dat  Res-01/  Res-02/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf results.tar --exclude=*.dat results/
results/
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4|results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxr-xr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-20 16:16 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Preserving symbolic links

If you have symbolic links in your directory and you want to preserve them, add the option -h to the tar command:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvhf results.tar results/

Compressing files and archives

Compress a file, files, a tar archive

Compressing and are archiving are two different processes. Archiving or creating a tar file put together several files or directories into a single file. Compressing is a process applied to a single file or archive in order to reduce its size. This is achieved using compressing utilities like: gzip or bzip2. In the following example, we compress the files: new.log.dat and results.tar.

Using gzip:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ gzip new.log.dat
[user_name@localhost]$ gzip results.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat.gz  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.gz  tests/  work/

Using bzip2:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 new.log.dat
[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 results.tar
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat.bz2  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.bz2  tests/  work/

Note: In order to compress while the archive is created, use the z or j option for gzip or bzip2 respectively.The extension of the file name does not really matter [.tar.gz and .tgz] are common extensions for files compressed with gzip; [.tar.bz2 and .tbz] are commonly used extensions for bzip2 compressed files.

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvzf results.tar.gz results/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4|results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.gz  tests/  work/

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvjf results.tar.bz2 results/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.bz2  results.tar.gz  tests/  work/

Adding files to a compressed archive (tar.gz/tar.bz2)

We have already mentioned that we cannot add files to compressed archives. To do so, we need to decompress the files using '"gunzip'" or '"bunzip2'". Once the tar file is obtained, we add the files to this archive by invoking the '"r'" option. After that, we can compress again using '"gzip'" or '"bzip2'".

Unpacking compressed files and archives

Extracting the whole archive

To unpack or extract an archive, we use -x {for extract} option with -f {for file}; -v {for verbosity} can also be added. Let us extract the whole archive results.tar. If we want to extract it in the same directory, we have to make sure that there is no directory with this name otherwise the extracted data go to that directory. To avoid rewriting the data if the directory exists already, we redirect to extracted data to another directory by adding the option -C and making sure that the destination directory exists already or created before unpacking the archive. For example, we create a directory moved_results and extract the data from the archive results.tar to this directory.

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvf results.tar -C new_results/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
new.log.dat 
report/
report/report-2016.pdf
report/report-a.pdf
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/
new.log.dat  report/  results/

Note: The option v displays only the file names as they were extracted from the archive. To see more details, this option should be invoked twice (use -xvvf instead of -xvf).

Decompressing gz and bz2 files

For files with '".gz'" extension, we use gunzip as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat.gz  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.gz  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ gunzip new.log.dat.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ gunzip results.tar.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/

For files with '".bz2'" extension, we use bunzip2 as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat.bz2  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.bz2  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 new.log.dat.bz2
[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 results.tar.bz2
[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/

Extracting a compressed archive file into another directory

As in the case of a tar file, a compressed tar file can be extracted into another directory by using '"-C'" to indicate the destination directory and adding the '"z'" option z '"*.gz'" files; or '"j'" for '"*.bz2'" files. We can use the same example as previously: extract the archive '"results.tar.gz'" (or '"results.tar.bz2'") into the directory '"new_results'". This can be achieved in one or two steps:

Extract the compressed archive file on one step:

With gz:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvzf results.tar.gz -C new_results/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xzf results.tar.gz -C new_results/
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/ 
results/

With bz2 extension:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.bz2  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvjf results.tar.bz2 -C new_results/
results/
results/log1.dat
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/|results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/
results/

Notes:* In the previous example, it is possible to start with the option '"-C'" {the destination directory}, however first make sure that the destination directory exists, since '"tar'" is not going to create it for you and will fail if it does not exist. The command is:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C new_results/ -xzf results.tar.gz

Or:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C new_results/ -xvjf results.tar.bz2

Notes:* If the option '"-C'" {destination directory} was not invoked, the files will be extracted in the same directory.

The option '"v'" is used for verbosity. In this case, it displays the files and directories as they are extracted to the new directory.
If you want to display more details (like the date, permission ...), add a second '"v'" option as follows: tar -C new_results/ -xvvzf results.tar.gz or tar -C new_results/ -xvvjf results.tar.bz2.'"Extract the compressed archive file on two steps:

Here, we use the same command as previously but without z or j options. First we use '"gunzip'" or '"bunzip2'" to decompress the file, then we use tar -xvf to un-tar the archive as follows:

Let suppose we have the compressed file: results.tar.bz2

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.bz2  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 results.tar.bz2
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ -xvvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 15:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/
log1.dat  log5.dat  Res-01/   Res-02/
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/
log1.dat  Res-01/  Res-02/

For the *.gz files:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar.gz  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ gunzip results.tar.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ -xvvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 15:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/
log1.dat  Res-01/  Res-02/

Extracting one file from an archive or a compressed archive

Let us consider again the same example as previously. First we create the archive results.tar for the directory archive and list all the files in it. Then we will extract one file into the directory new_results:

[user_name@localhost]$ ls
bin/  documents/  jobs/  new.log.dat  new_results/  programs/  report/  results/  results.tar  tests/  work/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 15:16 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4  [user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ --extract --file=results.tar results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4

In this example, we have extracted the file results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4 from the archive without decompressing the whole archive by using the option '"--extract'". The command creates the same directories as in the archive but in the destination directory.

Notes:

It is mandatory to use the -C {destination directory} for this command otherwise the command will extract the file to the same directory as the archive created for if it exists. If not, the command will create the same directory.
It works to extract a file or a directory but we need to give the right path for the file or directory.
The same command can be used to extract multiple files y adding the full path as in the previous example.

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ --extract --file=results.tar "results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4" "file2" "file3"

The same command can also be used to extract a file from a compressed tar file.From *.gz files:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ --extract -z --file=results.tar.gz results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4

From *.bz2 file:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ --extract -j --file=results.tar.bz2 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
new_results/results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4

Extract multiple files using wildcards

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ -xvf results.tar --wildcards "results/*.dat"
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/
log1.dat

With the above command, we have extracted the files that are in the directory results and with the extension .dat.

'Note: The command is also valid with invoking j or z options for compressed archives as we have seen previously.From our previous example, we can extract all the files that start by log for example.

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C ./new_results/ -xvf results.tar --wildcards "results/log*"
[user_name@localhost]$ ls new_results/results/
log1.dat

Contents of archive files

Listing the contents

What if you have a tar file and don't remember what is in it? In this case, you can just list its content without unpacking the file. This can be achieved using tar -t:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar
results/ 
results/log1.dat 
results/Res-01/
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/ 
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

In addition, the use of -v option will also give "metadata" about the files, like permissions, date of last change, owner, just like you would see with ls -l on unarchived files:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name   10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name       0 2016-11-16 19:36 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name   11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name   11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name       0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name   34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

If for any reason you are interested in the number of files within a given tar file, it is possible to combine one of the previous commands with a pipe { | } and wc -l { word count with -l option to count only the number of lines}. This command counts the number of lines in the output from the command before the pipe symbol.

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar | wc -l
7

Or:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar | wc -l
7

From this example, we have a total of 9 entries in the tar file. This number includes all the files and sub-directories that are in the directory results including this directory itself. Let us mention that the details of the files are not shown even if the –v option was used. This is due to the fact that the results of the first command are filtered through the command wc –l that displays only the number of lines but not their details.

The options in the previous commands can be invoked separately. For example:

The option -tvf is equivalent to -t -v -f
The option -v is equivalent to --verbose
The option -t is equivalent to --list
The option --file=results.tar is equivalent to -f results.tar

Note: The option -f or --file= comes always before the name of tar file.

Searching for a file in an archive file without unpacking it

We have seen previously how to list the files in the archive. It also possible to list the files and look at look for a particular file by using the list commands combined with pipe and grep commands. For example, let us see if we can find the file: log.15Feb16.4 (the path to this file is: results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4).

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar | grep -a log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar | grep -a log.15Feb16.4
-rw-r--r-- name name   11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4

Now, we can try see if we can find another file called for example pbs_file (for information, this file does not exist in our archive):

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar | grep -a pbs_file
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar | grep -a pbs_file

As you can see, the output of the commands is empty meaning that the file does not exist in the archive.

If you want to list all the files that start for example by log(or any other chain of characters) in the archive, type on your terminal:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar | grep -a log*
results/log1.dat 
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Or add the -v option for more details:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar | grep -a log*
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
-rw-r--r-- name name    11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Note: The command more can also be invoked after the pipe symbol to list the files in the archive or the compressed file.

Listing the contents of a compressed file (*.gz or .bz2)

As in the case of a tar file we have seen previously, it is possible to combine '"tar'" command with '"z'" option to list the content of an archive compressed with '"gzip'" without decompressing the file; or '"j'" option to list the content of an archive compressed with '"bzip2'" without decompressing the file.For '"*.gz'" files:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvzf results.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:36 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-20 11:16 new.log.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 report/
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-2016.pdf
-rw-r--r-- name name   924729 2015-11-20 04:14 report/report-a.pdf

For *.bz2 files:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvjf results.tar.bz2
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-20 11:02 results/
-rw-r--r-- name name    10905 2016-11-16 16:31 results/log1.dat
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:36 results/Res-01/
-rw-r--r-- name name    11672 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.1
-rw-r--r-- name name    11682 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-01/log.15Feb16.4
drwxrwxr-x name name        0 2016-11-16 19:37 results/Res-02/
-rw-r--r-- name name    34117 2016-11-16 15:10 results/Res-02/log.15Feb16.balance.b.4

Notes:

Again, in this example the option '"v'" is used to display all the details, but not required.
The two previous commands can be also combined with the pipe { | } and '"wc'"; or pipe { | } and grep; as we have seen previously.

Other useful utilities

Size of a file, directory or archive

From your terminal, you can use the command du -sh [your_file ...] to see the size:

[user_name@localhost]$ du -sh results.tar work tests
112K results.tar
58K  work
48K  tests

Splitting files

By knowing the size of your files or directories, you can decide how to split them on different archives if necessary to do not have to handle huge files. The splitting works also for archive files. A big file or tar file can be divided into small parts using the following syntax:

split -b <Size-in-MB><file or tar-file-name><prefix-name> split -b 100MB results.tar small-res

The option b is invoked to fix the size of the small parts; and prefix-name is the name for the small files. The above command will split the file results.tar into smaller files and the size of each one of them is 100 MB in current working directory and small file names will starts from: small-resaa small-resab small-resac small-resad .... etc.

To recover the original file, we use the cat command as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ cat small_res* > your_archive_name.tar

Using split command, it is possible to divide large files into smaller parts by invoking split with the size you want {-b size in MB} then transfer all the small parts. Once all the small parts are transferred, use the cat command to recover your original file or your archive. In case if you want to append numbers in place of alphabets, use -d option in above split command.

Reminder of common commands

The pwd {present work directory} command to see the current working path.

The ls {list} command to see the files and the sub-directories.

The command du -sh {disk usage} to see the size of the files, directories or sub-directories.

Important note: Applying the commands gzip or bzip2 to a given file [your_file or your_archive.tar] requires the use of some free space, as in the case of tar command, to create the final compressed file: [your_file.gz or your_file.bz2] or [your_archive.tar.gz or your_archive.tar.bz2]. These commands will fail if there is no space left in the device or if you are out of quota. On the CC clusters, use the command quotaor quota –sfrom your terminal to see in more human readable information if you have enough space to write additional data.

Apply tar to one directory [results]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf results.tar results

Apply tar to multiple files or directories in order to put them all together into a final single archive file.

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf your_archive.tar dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 dir5 file1 file2 file3 file4 file5

Apply tar to all files or directories that start with a given a letter r [or have a given chain of characters]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf your_archive.tar r*

List the content of a tar file [results.tar] including the details:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar

List the content of a tar file [results.tar] without details:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar

Count the number of entries in the tar file:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf results.tar | wc -l 
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf results.tar | wc -l

Search for a given file [file_name_you_search] in a tar archive file [your_archive.tar] without un-tarring the archive:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf your_archive.tar | grep -a file_name_you_search
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf your_archive.tar | grep -a file_name_you_search

List only file ending, or starting, or containing a certain pattern in their names: for examples files starting with log:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tf your_archive.tar | grep -a log*
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvf your_archive.tar | grep -a log*

Append a file or files or add a new file [new_file] to the end of a tar file [your_archive.tar]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -rf your_archive.tar new_file

Note: Files cannot be added to compressed archives [*.gz or *.bzip2]. Files can only be added to plain tar archives [*.tar].* Add a directory [new_dir] to an existing tar file [your_archive.tar]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -rf your_archive.tar new_dir

Add one archive [archive_02.tar] to another [archive_01.tar] with concatenate (-A option):

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -A -f archive_01.tar archive_02.tar

Extract the whole archive file [your_archive.tar]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvf your_archive.tar

Extract the whole archive file [your_archive.tar] into a specified directory [destination_dir]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvf your_archive.tar -C destination_dir

Compress a file [file0], or files [file1 file2 file3 file4 file5] or an archive file [your_archive.tar] using gzip command:

[user_name@localhost]$ gzip file0
[user_name@localhost]$ gzip file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
[user_name@localhost]$ gzip your_archive.tar

Compress a file [file0], or files [file1 file2 file3 file4 file5] or an archive file [your_archive.tar] using bzip2 command:

[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 file0
[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
[user_name@localhost]$ bzip2 your_archive.tar

Compress with z or j option for gzip or bzip respectively:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvzf results.tar.gz results|
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvjf results.tar.bz2 results/
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvzf results.tgz results
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvjf results.tbz results/

Exclude particular files [for example files with *.o] while creating a tar file:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -cvf your_archive.tar your_directory --exclude=*.o

Decompress *.gz or *.bz2 compressed files:

For files with .gz extension, use gunzip as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ gunzip your_file.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ gunzip your_archive.gz

For files with .bz2 extension, use bunzip2 as follows:

[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 your_file.bz2
[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 your_archive.tar.bz2

List the content of a compressed file [*.gz or *.bz2]:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvzf your_archive.tar.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -tvjf your_archive.tar.bz2

Notes: Again, in this example the option v is used to display all detail but not required. The two previous commands can be also combined with the [pipe { | } and wc] or [pipe { | } and grep] as we have seen previously.

Extract a compressed archive file in another directory:

[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvzf your_archive.tar.gz -C destination_dir
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -xvjf your_archive.tar.bz2 -C destination_dir
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C destination_dir -xvzf your_archive.tar.gz
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C destination_dir -xvjf your_archive.tar.bz2

Extract and retrieve data from a compressed archive file on two steps:

For the *.bz2 files:

[user_name@localhost]$ bunzip2 your_archive.tar.bz2
[user_name@localhost]$ tar -C destination_dir -xvf your_archive.tar