gz

Create a .tar file with different compression methods

 in Bash / GNU/Linux  tagged bz2 / gz / tar / tgz / xz by

The following commands will create .tar archives  and compress them using the different methods that are available. We provide multiple solutions, each one for a different type of .tar archive depending on the compression method that is desired.

For .tar archives

tar -c -f archive.tar $FILES_TO_ARCHIVE;

For .tar.bz2 archives

tar -c -j -f archive.tar.bz2 $FILES_TO_ARCHIVE;

For .tar.xz archives

tar -c -J -f archive.tar.xz $FILES_TO_ARCHIVE;

For .tar.gz and .tgz archives

tar -c -z -f archive.tar.gz $FILES_TO_ARCHIVE;

tar Parameters Legend

  • -z or --gzip instructs tar to filter the archive through gzip
  • -j or --bzip2 filters the archive through bzip2
  • -J or --xz filters the archive through xz
  • -f or --file=OUTPUT uses the archive file OUTPUT
  • -c or --create a new archive

Bonus Example: Create a tar.xz archive using the current date in the archive name

The following command will create an archive out of the folders Folder1 and Folder2 and then it will compress it to the .tar.xz format.
The filename of the archive will contain the current date in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

tar -c -J  -f archive.`date +%F`.tar.xz Folder1 Folder2;

The above command will result in something similar to:

archive.2017-06-04.tar.xz

How to search for specific filenames in .tar archives

 in GNU/Linux  tagged bz2 / find / grep / gz / tar / tgz / xz by

The following commands will search in the .tar archives found in the specified folder and print on screen all files that their paths or filenames match our search token. We provide multiple solutions, each one for a different type of .tar archive depending on the compression used.

For .tar archives

find /media/repository/packages/ -type f -iname "*.tar" -exec tar -t -f '{}' \; | grep "configurations/arm-cortexa9";

For .tar.bz2 archives

find /media/repository/packages/ -type f -iname "*.tar.bz2" -exec tar -t -j -f '{}' \; | grep "configurations/arm-cortexa9";

For .tar.xz archives

find /media/repository/packages/ -type f -iname "*.tar.xz" -exec tar -t -J -f '{}' \; | grep "configurations/arm-cortexa9";

For .tar.gz and .tgz archives

Please note that this commands uses the -o (which is the logical or) parameter on find to search for multiple filename extensions.

find /media/repository/packages/ -type f \( -iname "*.tar.gz" -o -iname "*.tgz" \) -exec tar -t -z -f '{}' \; | grep "configurations/arm-cortexa9";

find Parameters Legend

  • -type f filters out any result which is not a regular file
  • -exec command '{}' \; runs the specified command on the results of find. The string '{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed.
  • -o is the logical Or operator. The second expression  is not evaluated if the first expression is true.

tar Parameters Legend

  • -z or --gzip instructs tar to filter the archive through gzip
  • -j or --bzip2 filters the archive through bzip2
  • -J or --xz filters the archive through xz
  • -t or --list lists the contents of an archive
  • -f or --file=INPUT uses the archive file or device named INPUT

List the contents of a tar or tar.gz file

 in Bash / GNU/Linux / HowTos  tagged archive / bz2 / bzip2 / gz / gzip / list / tar by

List the contents of a tar file

<code>tar -tvf file.tar</code>

List the contents of a tar.gz file

<code>tar -ztvf file.tar.gz</code>

List the contents of a tar.bz2 file

<code>tar -jtvf file.tar.bz2</code>

Options:
-t List the contents of an archive
-v Verbose mode
-z Use gzip so that you can process a compressed (.gz) tar file
-j Use bzip2, use to decompress .bz2 files
-f filename Use archive file called filename