cli-tarHow do I compress a file using the Unix tar command?

The Unix tar command allows you to compress a file. The following example shows how to compress a file named file.txt:

tar -czvf file.tar.gz file.txt

This command creates a compressed file named file.tar.gz. The options used in this command are:

• -c: This option creates a new tar archive.
• -z: This option compresses the tar archive with gzip.
• -v: This option prints the progress of the compression to the terminal.
• -f: This option tells tar to read or create the archive specified by the file name.

The output of the command should look like this:

file.txt

For more information about the tar command, please see the following links:

• GNU Tar Manual
• How to use Tar Command in Linux

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