Archive and Compress Files with tar and gzip
Archive and Compress Files with tar and gzip-zcvfIf you look back at "Archive and Compress Files Using gzip" and "Archive and Compress Files Using bzip2" and think about what was discussed there, you'll probably start to figure out a problem. What if you want to compress a directory that contains 100 files, contained in various subdirectories? If you use gzip or bzip2 with the -r (for recursive) option, you'll end up with 100 individually compressed files, each stored neatly in its original subdirectory. This is undoubtedly not what you want. How would you like to attach 100 .gz or .bz2 files to an email? Yikes! That's where tar comes in. First you'd use tar to archive the directory and its contents (those 100 files inside various subdirectories) and then you'd use gzip or bzip2 to compress the resulting tarball. Because gzip is the most common compression program used in concert with tar, we'll focus on that. You could do it this way: $ ls -l moby-dick/* scott scott 102519 moby-dick/job.txt scott scott 1236574 moby-dick/moby-dick.txt scott scott 508925 moby-dick/paradise_lost.txt moby-dick/bible: scott scott 207254 genesis.txt scott scott 102519 job.txt $ tar -cf moby.tar moby-dick/ | gzip -c > moby.tar.gz $ ls -l scott scott 168 moby-dick/ scott scott 20 moby.tar.gz That method works, but it's just too much typing! There's a much easier way that should be your default. It involves two new options for tar: -z (or --gzip), which invokes gzip from within tar so you don't have to do so manually, and -v (or --verbose), which isn't required here but is always useful, as it keeps you notified as to what tar is doing as it runs. $ ls -l moby-dick/* scott scott 102519 moby-dick/job.txt scott scott 1236574 moby-dick/moby-dick.txt scott scott 508925 moby-dick/paradise_lost.txt moby-dick/bible: scott scott 207254 genesis.txt scott scott 102519 job.txt $ tar -zcvf moby.tar.gz moby-dick/ moby-dick/ moby-dick/job.txt moby-dick/bible/ moby-dick/bible/genesis.txt moby-dick/bible/job.txt moby-dick/moby-dick.txt moby-dick/paradise_lost.txt $ ls -l scott scott 168 moby-dick scott scott 846049 moby.tar.gz The usual extension for a file that has had the tar and then the gzip commands used on it is .tar.gz; however, you could use .tgz and .tar.gzip if you like. Note It's entirely possible to use bzip2 with tar instead of gzip. Your command would look like this (note the -j option, which is where bzip2 comes in): $ tar -jcvf moby.tar.bz2 moby-dick/ In that case, the extension should be .tar.bz2, although you may also use .tar.bzip2, .tbz2, or .tbz. Yes, it's very confusing that using gzip or bzip2 might both result in a file ending with .tbz. This is a strong argument for using anything but that particular extension to keep confusion to a minimum. |
