cli-tarHow do I compress a folder using tar and gz in the command line?

The tar command can be used to compress a folder in the command line. The gz option is used to compress the folder with the gzip algorithm.

To compress a folder using tar and gz, use the following command:

tar -czvf <output-filename>.tar.gz <input-folder>

The flags used in this command are:

• -c: create a new archive
• -z: compress the archive with gzip
• -v: verbose mode - show the progress while creating the archive
• -f: specify the filename of the archive

The output of this command will be a single tar.gz file containing the compressed folder.

Helpful links

• tar command reference
• gzip command reference

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