Archive Compress Unpack And Uncompress Files Using Tar Star Gzip And Bzip2
General Information
You can do most all with tar, but it doesn't matter which tool you use to get the job done.
tar
Options
- -c ⇒ create new archive
- -t ⇒ list contents of archive
- -x ⇒ extract files from archive
- -z ⇒ compress or decompress in gzip (depending upon if -x or -c was also passed)
- -v ⇒ display files as they are processed
- -j ⇒ use bzip2
- -r ⇒ append/add file to the end of the existing archive
- -u ⇒ update a file in an existing archive if the source is newer
- -f ⇒ archive filename
- –selinux ⇒ include selinux contexts
Archive and compress (using gzip) the /var/log directory
tar -cvzf logs.tar.gz /var/log
List contents of archive
tar -tf logs.tar.gz
Decompress and unpack at the same time to current directory
tar -zxvf logs.tar.gz
Decompress and unpack at the same time to a different existing directory
tar -zxvf logs.tar.gz -C /home/rjones/data/
Add a new file to an existing archive
tar -rvf logs.tar newlog.log
star
Install (usually not there by default)
yum install star
Archive and compress the /var/log directory (name it logs.tar.gz)
star -cz -f logs.tar.gz /var/log
List archive contents
star -t -f logs.tar
Decompress, unpack a bzip2 (star auto selects proper decompression type)
star -x -f logs.tar.bz2
gzip
Compress an archive
gzip logs.tar
Decompress an archive
gzip -d logs.tar.gz OR gunzip logs.tar.gz
Cat a compressed file (useful for rotated logs)
zcat messages.1.log.gz
bzip2
Compress an archive
bzip2 logs.tar
Decompress an archive
bzip2 -d logs.tar.bz2 OR bunzip2 logs.tar.bz2
Cat a compressed file (useful for rotated logs)
bzcat messages.1.log.bz2