How To Compress A Tar Ball Directory In Linux

Forums Index
» Linux Hosting Forums
» » How To Compress A Tar Ball Directory In Linux

How To Compress A Tar Ball Directory In Linux
Post Description:
Post Tags: how, to, compress, a, tar, ball, directory, in, linux, linux hosting, troubleshoot, help, support advise, questions, answers
This Post Has Been Viewed 3327 Times Since Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:43 am Posted By hostman with 2 replies

How To Compress A Tar Ball Directory In Linux

I have a whole directory that i would like to compress into a gzip file, but i forgot what the command is, can you help please?

Leave Your Comments

Comments and replies About How To Compress A Tar Ball Directory In Linux

:: 1 :: #43 - Reply By hostman On Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:51 am

I you want to pack a whole directory along with its files and subdirectories, try running this command at the shell to see if it works, not sure if this is the correct command though:

Code:

tar -cvf - directory_name | gzip -c > packed_directory_name.tar.gz

:: 2 :: #44 - Reply By hostman On Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:55 am

Usage

* To pack tar files, use the following commands:
- for an uncompressed tar file:

Code:

tar -cf packed_files.tar file_to_pack1 file_to_pack2

- to pack and compress (one step at a time):

Code:

tar -cf packed_files.tar file_to_pack1 file_to_pack2 ...
gzip packed_files.tar

- to pack and compress all at once:

Code:

tar -cf - file_to_pack1 file_to_pack2 ... | gzip -c > packed_files.tar.gz

- to create a tar from a directory and its subdirectories:

Code:

tar -cvf packed_files.tar dir_to_pack

* To unpack tar files, use the following commands:
- for an uncompressed tar file:

Code:

tar -xf file_to_unpack.tar

- to decompress and unpack one step at a time:

Code:

gunzip packed_files.tar.gz
tar -xf packed_files.tar

- to decompress and unpack all at once:

Code:

gunzip -c packed_files.tar.gz | tar -xf -

* To list the contents of a tar file, use the following command:

Code:

tar -tvf file_to_list.tar

To use bzip2 instead of gzip, simply replace the commands above with bzip2 where gzip is used and bunzip2 where gunzip is used.