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

The tar command is a Unix utility used to create and manipulate tar archives. To compress a file with the tar command, use the following syntax:

tar -czf <filename>.tar.gz <file_or_directory_to_compress>

This command will create a tar.gz archive of the specified file or directory.

The parts of the command are:

• tar: The command to run
• -czf: The flags used to compress and create a new archive
• <filename>.tar.gz: The name of the new archive
• <file_or_directory_to_compress>: The file or directory to compress

For example, to compress the file example.txt, you would run the command:

tar -czf example.tar.gz example.txt

This will create a example.tar.gz archive containing the example.txt file.

Helpful links

• Tar Command Tutorial
• GNU Tar Manual

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