Otherwise, keep reading to learn how to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux, macOS, and Windows. This example uses example1.tar.gz in the Home directory. The tar option will appear after you’ve right-clicked on the item and chosen mouse over compress. If you are using a gz file, extract the mouseover extract, and then choose an option to unpack it. That means users can download and use it for free during a trial period.
For more information and to schedule a live demo, contact a hosting expert from Kinsta today. Notice that the “-z” is missing from what should be sudo tar -xz on the far right. To access the Windows command line, search for “command prompt” or “cmd” in the search bar. Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option.
.tar vs .tar.gz Files
From videos to entire software packages, many files are compressed and stored using the .tar.gz format. While extracting a .tar.gz file isn’t quite as easy as unzipping a .zip, it’s still pretty straightforward. On Windows, the https://www.crypto-trading.info/ easiest way to handle .tar files is to install the LGPL open source 7-Zip utility. Its name implies it’s a zip utility, but it also works with tar archives, and even provides commands for the cmd command-line interface.
- Technical details aside, all you need to remember is that .zip files are more accessible but less space-efficient, while .tar files are less accessible but more space-efficient.
- Any remotely modern version of tar should auto-detect that the archive is gzipped, and add “z” for you.
- The tar program takes one or more files and “wraps” them into a self-contained file.
- If you are using a gz file, extract the mouseover extract, and then choose an option to unpack it.
Here’s a guide to uninstall BetterDiscord to help you get on the legal side. Are you facing the issue of low memory error on your https://www.bitcoin-mining.biz/ system while performing basic tasks on your Windows PC? Here we list out several possible solutions for fixing this error.
You can run a wide range of compression programs, including gzip, bzip2, lzip, and lzma. The tar command can also be used to display a list of all of the files that have been included in the archive. You must provide your exact names, including the path, when extracting files, as indicated by the https://www.cryptonews.wiki/ -t symbol. A directory is extracted from an archive in the same way that a file is extracted. If you try to extract a file that does not exist, the following error message will appear. People new to the tar format usually equate it to a .zip file, but a tar archive is notably not compressed.
The options “x,” “-v,” and “-f” are used to extract the package, and “-f” is used to perform the extraction forcefully. It can be used to extract and display compressed files without removing them from the list by using zcat. This function can be useful in cases where a compressed file has been decompressed but still has contents. In the shell, you can add a file or directory to a tar archive as long as it is not compressed.
Zip and Unzip .tar and .tar.gz in Linux with gzip
Where most operating systems make it easy to extract and create .zip files, the same can’t really be said for .tar files — at least not in ways that are easy to notice. On a fresh CentOS install, we’ll show you how to install tar.gz files using the traditional method. To create a program, a developer must install around 100 packages. This package is commonly referred to as the “build-essential” package, and it’s also referred to as the “build-standard” package.
To unzip the .tar.gz files, you’ll need to use specific commands and tools depending on your operating system. Let’s explore the extraction process for both Linux & Windows platforms. People new to the .tar format usually equate it to a .zip archive, but a tar archive is not compressed. Tar collected all the files into one package, but the files can be compressed with separate utilities. Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space. Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz will be more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip.
Linux News You’ll Love!
It signifies the strong sense of community and interconnectedness at the core of Ubuntu’s philosophy. The tar format is just a format, and it’s an open format, so it can be created by more than just one tool. However, while tools like 7-Zip are free, many more “robust” solutions are only available for a price after a trial period. As a result, we recommend sticking to free (but trustworthy) tools or simply using the command line.
GNU tar and BSD tar
Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats. Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. With the command prompt open, use the appropriate commands to change the current working directory (cd) to the location of the .tar.gz file you want to unzip. Alternatively, you can also specify a source and destination file path when using the tar utility.
If your archive has been compressed, you must uncompress it, but you do not need to unarchive it. This error occurs if you try to decompress a file without specifying a decompression utility, specifically -z for gzip. This error occurs when trying to extract specific files or directories from a .tar.gz file using tar. Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats. Note that this command will throw an error unless you specify the exact filename listed in the .tar file. As we’ll cover more in the next section, you can verify file names by listing contents with the tar -tf filename.tar.gz command.
The command extracts files to a new directory called example1, which is located in the current directory. In this guide, you will learn how to extract or unzip .tar.gz files in Linux. It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu.
The most often used algorithm for compressing tar files is Gzip. By convention, the name of a tar archive compressed with gzip becomes .tar.gz or .tgz. Most Linux and BSD desktops come with a graphical archive utility. I use this option so that when I extract files from a tarbomb, they remain tidy and contained. Like many archive and compression formats, .tar.gz is an effective way to save storage space and make it easier to send large amounts of data. If you plan to distribute and store .tar.gz files on your website, Kinsta’s managed hosting services can help make the most of your space.
Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed. In other words, .zip files are a collection of compressed files, while .tar files are a compressed collection of files. WinRAR is a popular file compression & archive utility software. Though both .zip and .tar.gz archive and compress files, they do so in different ways. In other words, .zip is a collection of compressed files, while .tar.gz is a compressed collection of files.
A similar situation occurs with .mp3 and .ogg files. This is because most versions of tar allow both gnu and bsd style options (simplistically, gnu requires a hyphen, bsd doesn’t). You can open most .tar.gz files using the tar command built in to Linux, macOS, and Windows 10. If you’re not comfortable with the terminal or command line, third-party tools such as 7-Zip offer a more user-friendly alternative.
Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms. Many of the downloadable Linux/Unix files found on the internet are compressed using a tar.gz format. Therefore, knowing how to open or untar tar.gz files is very useful.
