cli-tarHow do I create a tar.gz file using the command line?

Creating a tar.gz file using the command line is a simple process. The tar command can be used to create a tar file, and the gzip command can be used to compress the tar file. This can be done in one step with the -z flag.

The following example command creates a tar.gz file from the my-directory directory:

tar -zcvf my-directory.tar.gz my-directory

The -z flag tells tar to compress the tar file using gzip. The -c flag creates a new tar file, the -v flag enables verbose output, and the -f flag specifies the file name for the tar file.

The output of the command should look like this:

tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
my-directory/
my-directory/file1.txt
my-directory/file2.txt
my-directory/file3.txt

The my-directory.tar.gz file will now be created in the current directory.

Parts of the command:

• tar: The command used to create tar files
• -z: Flag to tell tar to compress the tar file using gzip
• -c: Flag to create a new tar file
• -v: Flag to enable verbose output
• -f: Flag to specify the file name for the tar file

Helpful links

• GNU Tar Manual
• Gzip Manual

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