Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. Again, the above commands will extract to the current working directory by default. You can use the -C option to extract to a different directory (in this case, /home/user/files).
Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option. You can also use –wildcards to extract all files with a certain extension or name. Otherwise, keep reading to learn how to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux, macOS, and Windows. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes.
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. A “.tar” file is a collection of files compressed into a single file or archive. Short for “Tape ARchive,” the name “TAR” is a throwback to when files were stored on magnetic tape drives. Whether you prefer command-line tools or graphical file archivers, the extraction process is pretty simple. To extract a tar.gz file using an archive manager, you need to open the file with the archive manager and then click on the Extract button.
Troubleshooting Common Errors
You can also choose the destination directory where you want to extract the files. You can also extract only specific files or directories from a tar.gz archive, by providing their names after the archive name. You need to use the exact names and paths as listed by the tar -t command. If you want to see the progress of the extraction, you can use the -v option, which makes the tar command more verbose and prints the names of the files being extracted.
However, there are also many third-party tools you can install for a more user-friendly experience. As we’ll see later, different compression utilities may require different methods for extracting and unzipping files. Though we’ll mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats. Where .zip https://www.topbitcoinnews.org/ 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. In this article, you learned how to extract or unzip tar.gz files in Linux using the tar command and other tools.
For sending and storing, both .zip and .tar.gz files will allow you to send relatively large packages as a single file. However, there are some pretty major differences when it comes to accessing data within the files and the compression efficiency. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files. Mac users can also use this command to extract their tar.gz files, though they also have access to a GUI-based method we will discuss in the next section. To open such a package, you need to decompress the gzip and extract the resulting tarball.
How Do I Unzip a .tar.gz File in Linux Terminal?
You also learned how to list the contents of a tar.gz file and how to create your own tar.gz archives. In this article, you will learn how to extract or unzip tar.gz files in Linux using the tar command and other tools. You will also learn how to list the contents of a tar.gz file and how to create your own tar.gz archives. Mac’s native archive utility supports the file format as well, which means you can just double-click on the tar.gz file in question to extract it. You can create your own compressed .tar files using compression utilities such as gzip. Gzip is one of the most popular and available options, especially since it comes built in to most Linux distributions and macOS.
This guide will teach you the steps to use native tar commands on Windows 10 from Command Prompt and Ubuntu to extract the content of a .tar.gz file. After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools. In this guide, you will learn how to extract or unzip .tar.gz files in Linux. Some third-party tools also offer extended flexibility for converting between file types, saving more time if you want to change between compression formats. If the command line isn’t your thing, there are plenty of user-friendly tools available to unzip tar.gz files. Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time.
It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu. While Tar GZ can be opened and used on Windows and https://www.crypto-trading.info/ macOS with WinZip, you’re much more likely to spot the Tar GZ file format on Linux operating systems. To access the Windows command line, search for “command prompt” or “cmd” in the search bar.
7-Zip is a free and open-source tool with high compression ratios & supports a wide range of archive formats. It offers AES-256 encryption to protect sensitive data within archives. Users can utilize the 7-zip command-line interface for automated & scripted extraction tasks. 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. When you extract files from a .tar.gz archive, the checksum is automatically verified to detect & handle any potential data corruption.
- It may sound like a silly mistake, but it’s surprisingly common in situations where users directly rename files and their extensions (such as .tar and .gz) in the process.
- This format involves multiple files bundled into a single archive and compressed using gzip compression.
- These files are often referred to as “tarballs.” While you can find them with a double extension (.tar.gz), the extension can also be shortened to .tgz or .gz.
- You can easily extract .tar.gz files using third-party tools like 7 zip and Winrar on the Windows system.
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To extract a tar.gz file using the tar command, you need to use the -x option, which tells tar to extract the files from the archive. You also need to use the -z option to indicate that the archive is compressed with gzip, and the -f option to specify the file name. By compressing several files into one Tar GZ file, you’ll be able to send multiple files as one single archived folder. This format can be sent by email or social media platforms that support the Tar GZ file format.
Only Extract Specific Files or Directories From .tar.gz in Linux
Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2. As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. 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.
Since Windows doesn’t natively support .tar.gz files, extracting involves third-party tools or non-native commands. The following text outlines the process of extracting a .tar.gz file in a Windows environment. Instead of downloading a specific application to your computer or leveraging its built-in abilities, you can extract your tar.gz archive using an online app.
Then we’ll jump into the step-by-step process of unzipping on both Linux and Windows platforms. Giving you all the benefits of the GZ file format with added accessibility and ease of use. Choose whether to unzip to one of the offered locations or define one with the Unzip to… option. Choose Extract Here to extract the file to your current location.
The first is the -k option, and the other uses the -c option to output the compressed file to a different file, preserving the original. Thankfully, you don’t need to be a 1960s computer technician to use and extract .tar files – nor do modern .tar files even have anything to do with old computers. This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression https://www.cryptominer.services/ process, and the original files can be fully restored upon extraction. This format is common in the Unix/Linux world and is widely used to create compressed archives. The easiest method on all platforms would be to use an online extraction tool. Such a utility works across platforms anywhere, saving you the hassle of figuring out the right way to extract a tar.gz file.