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Systems & Data Center · Foundational

tar

The Linux tape archive utility that bundles files and directories into a single archive, optionally compressed.

Definition

Key options: c create, x extract, t list, f file, v verbose, and z, j or J for gzip, bzip2 or xz compression. tar preserves permissions and directory structure, and -p or --xattrs preserve more metadata.

Example

tar czf etc-backup.tgz /etc creates a gzip-compressed archive of /etc.

Exam tip

Know czf to create, xzf to extract and tzf to list a .tar.gz archive.

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