tar commands

tar is used to create a Tape ARchive. The resulting file is known as a tarball. It's pretty much the same concept as a

ZIP file, if you know what they are, but without the compression. To get the files out of a tarball, you can use the

following commands:

# tar xvf nobs.tar

If the tarball has also been gzipped (compressed), you can use the following command:

# tar xvfz nobs.tar.gz

If you only want certain directories from the tarball, do this:

# tar xvzf nobs.tar.gz */dir.you.want/*

If you have a .tar.bz2 file, then you need bzip2 installed (/usr/ports/archivers/bzip2), and you issue this command:

# tar yxf nobs.tar.bz2


tar
To tar up *.db in the current directory into a tarball called nobs.tar.gz, issue this command:

# tar cfz nobs.tar.gz *.db

The z option compresses.
listing the contents
To see a list of the files within a tarball, issue the following command:

# tar -tzf nobs.tar.gz

The -t provides a list. the -z indicates that the tarball is compressed. The -f identifies the tarball.

Here's an example:

# tar -tzf makeworld.991126.tgz
etc/
etc/protocols
etc/aliases
etc/services
etc/hosts