📦 Tar & Compression Cheatsheet

📁 File Extensions & Their Meaning

Extension	Description	Compression Tool
.tar	Archive only (no compression)	—
.tar.gz / .tgz	Tar + gzip compression	gzip
.tar.bz2	Tar + bzip2 compression	bzip2
.tar.xz	Tar + xz compression	xz
.gz	Single file compressed with gzip	gzip
.xz	Single file compressed with xz	xz
.zip	Archive + compression	zip

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📦 Extracting Files

File Type	Command
.tar	tar -xf file.tar
.tar.gz	tar -xzf file.tar.gz
.tgz	tar -xzf file.tgz
.tar.bz2	tar -xjf file.tar.bz2
.tar.xz	tar -xJf file.tar.xz
.gz	gunzip file.gz or gzip -d file.gz
.xz	unxz file.xz or xz -d file.xz
.zip	unzip file.zip

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📚 List Contents of an Archive

File Type	Command
.tar	tar -tf file.tar
.tar.gz	tar -tzf file.tar.gz
.tar.bz2	tar -tjf file.tar.bz2
.tar.xz	tar -tJf file.tar.xz

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📤 Create Archives

Archive Type	Command
.tar	tar -cf archive.tar file_or_dir
.tar.gz	tar -czf archive.tar.gz file_or_dir
.tar.bz2	tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 file_or_dir
.tar.xz	tar -cJf archive.tar.xz file_or_dir
.zip	zip archive.zip file_or_dir

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🔑 Tar Flags Quick Reference

Flag	Meaning
-c	Create archive
-x	Extract archive
-t	List archive contents
-f	Use archive file
-z	Gzip compression
-j	Bzip2 compression
-J	XZ compression
-v	Verbose (list files)

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