Extract tar.gz File

tar is used to create a Tape ARchive.  The resulting file is known as a tarball.  It's pretty much the same concept as a ZIP file, if you know what they are, but without the compression.  To get the files out of a tarball, you can use the following commands: tar xvf something.tar If the tarball has also been gzipped (compressed), you can use the following command: tar xvfz something.tar.gz If you only want certain directories from the tarball, do this: tar xvzf something.tar.gz */dir.you.want/* If you have a .tar.bz2 file, then you need bzip2 installed (/usr/ports/archivers/bzip2), and you issue this command: tar yxf something.tar.bz2

tar

To tar up *.db in the current directory into a tarball called blah.tar.gz, issue this command: tar cfz blah.tar.gz *.db The z option compresses.

listing the contents

To see a list of the files within a tarball, issue the following command: tar -tzf blah.tar.gz The -t provides a list.  the -z indicates that the tarball is compressed.   The -f identifies the tarball. Here's an example: # tar -tzf makeworld.991126.tgz etc/ etc/protocols etc/aliases etc/services etc/hosts