Archiving — Compressing and extracting files
gzip
Archiving
Compress files using gzip
Syntax
gzip [OPTIONS] FILE
Examples
gzip file.txt gzip -d file.txt.gz gzip -k file.txt
Common Flags
-d decompress
-k keep original file
-9 best compression
-1 fastest compression
tar
Archiving
Archive files (tape archive)
Syntax
tar [OPTIONS] FILE...
Examples
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/dir tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz -C /dest/
Common Flags
-c create archive
-x extract archive
-t list contents
-z gzip compression
-j bzip2 compression
-v verbose
-f specify filename
-C extract to directory
Notes
Memory aid: "eXtract Ze Files" for xzf. "Create Ze Files" for czf.
unzip
Archiving
Extract compressed files from a ZIP archive
Syntax
unzip [OPTIONS] ZIPFILE
Examples
unzip archive.zip unzip archive.zip -d /dest/ unzip -l archive.zip
Common Flags
-d DIR extract to directory
-l list contents without extracting
zip
Archiving
Package and compress files
Syntax
zip [OPTIONS] ZIPFILE FILE...
Examples
zip archive.zip file1.txt file2.txt zip -r archive.zip /path/to/dir
Common Flags
-r recursive
-e encrypt with password
-9 best compression