Create a TarBall File

tar -zcvf archive-name.tar.gz directory-name

Where,

• -z : Compress archive using gzip program
• -c: Create archive
• -v: Verbose i.e display progress while creating archive
• -f: Archive File name

For example, say you have a directory called /home/jerry/prog and you would like to compress this directory then you can type tar command as follows:
$ tar -zcvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz /home/jerry/prog
Above command will create an archive file called prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz in current directory. If you wish to restore your archive then you need to use the following command (it will extract all files in current directory):
$ tar -zxvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz
Where,

• -x: Extract files

If you wish to extract files in particular directory, for example in /tmp then you need to use the following command:
$ tar -zxvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz -C /tmp
$ cd /tmp
$ ls -

A note about non gnu/tar command

The above syntax use GNU tar command for compressing and uncompressing tar files. If your system does not use GNU tar, you can still create a compressed tar file, via the following syntax:
tar -cvf - file1 file2 dir3 | gzip > archive.tar.gz

Extract or Unpack a TarBall File

To unpack or extract a tar file, type:

tar -xvf file.tar

To save disk space and bandwidth over the network all files are saved using compression program such as gzip or bzip2. To extract / unpack a .tar.gz (gzip) file, enter (note -z option):

tar -xzvf file.tar.gz

To extract / unpack a .tar.bz2 (bzip2) file, enter (note -j option):

tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2

Where,

• -x : Extract a tar ball.
• -v : Verbose output or show progress while extracting files.
• -f : Specify an archive or a tarball filename.
• -j : Decompress and extract the contents of the compressed archive created by bzip2 program (tar.bz2 extension).
• -z : Decompress and extract the contents of the compressed archive created by gzip program (tar.gz extension).

How Do I Extract A Single File Called foo.txt?

To extract a single file called foo.txt, enter:

tar -xvf file.tar foo.txt
tar -xzvf file.tar.gz foo.txt
tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2 foo.txt

You can also specify path such as etc/resolv.conf, enter:

tar -xvf file.tar etc/resolv.conf
tar -xzvf file.tar.gz etc/resolv.conf
tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2 etc/resolv.conf

How Do I Extract a Single Directory Called etc?

To extract a single directory called etc, enter:

tar -xvf file.tar etc
tar -xzvf file.tar.gz etc
tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2 etc

Sample outputs:

etc/
etc/pulse/
etc/pulse/default.pa
etc/pulse/client.conf
etc/pulse/daemon.conf
etc/pulse/system.pa
etc/xml/
etc/xml/docbook-xml.xml.old
etc/xml/xml-core.xml
etc/xml/catalog
etc/xml/catalog.old
etc/xml/docbook-xml.xml
etc/xml/rarian-compat.xml
etc/xml/sgml-data.xml
etc/xml/xml-core.xml.old
etc/xml/sgml-data.xml.old
etc/mail.rc
etc/Wireless/
etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/
etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat
etc/logrotate.conf
etc/compizconfig/
etc/compizconfig/config
.....
...
....

etc/python/
etc/python/debian_config
etc/ConsoleKit/
etc/ConsoleKit/seats.d/
etc/ConsoleKit/seats.d/00-primary.seat
etc/ConsoleKit/run-session.d/
etc/ConsoleKit/run-seat.d/
etc/opt/