How to compress a whole directory (including subdirectories) using TAR in Unix based OS with the CLI

Many modern Unix systems, such as Linux, use GNU tar, a version of tar produced by the Free Software Foundation. TAR stands for tape archiving, the storing of entire file systems onto magnetic tape, which is one use for the command. The most common use for tar is to simply combine a few files into a single file, for easy storage and distribution. If your system uses GNU tar, you can easily use gzip (the GNU file compression program) in conjunction with tar to create compressed files with the command line following the next command syntax:

tar -zcvf [result-filename.tar.gz] [path-of-directory-to-compress]

The -zcvf instruction stand for:

• -z: Compress the desired file/directory using gzip
• -c: Stand for create file (output tar.gz file)
• -v: To display the progress while creating the file
• -f: Finally the path of the desire file/directory to compress

For example, let's suppose that you are located in the command line in the /www directory and inside this directory there is a folder that you want to compress into a single file namely "sandbox". To compress the sandbox folder into a tar file you would run the command as:

tar -zcvf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz sandbox

This should start the compression of the directory into a new tar file, as we have our -v argument to display the progress in the console, you would see a list of every filename that is being added to the file.

Extracting generated file

If you want now to extract as well with the command line the generated file, you should use now the following command syntax:

tar -xvzf [your-tar-file.tar.gz]

The -zcvf instruction stands for:

• -z: Compress the desired file/directory using gzip
• -x: Stand for extract file (input tar.gz file). If any files are named on the command line, only those files will be extracted from the archive.
• -v: To display the progress while creating the file

For example, to extract our previously created file you should use the command:

tar -xvzf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz

That will extract the content of the file (sandbox folder) in the current directory.

Extracting content to a custom directory

If you need to extract the content of the generated tar to a custom directory instead of the current directory, you can specify the new directory where the content should be extracted using the -C or --directory option in your extraction command:

tar -xvzf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz -C /target/directory

Happy coding ❤️!