Comments on The Linux tar Command Explained

The Linux tar command is the swiss army of the Linux admin when it comes to archiving or distributing files. Gnu Tar archives can contain multiple files and directories, file permissions can be preserved and it supports multiple compression formats. The name tar stands for "Tape Archiver", the format is an official POSIX standard.

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By: dgrb

"The Linux tar command is the swiss army of the Linux admin".

I think you mean "Swiss army knife"...

By: wally

Stay away from / at beginning of files to create backup of. Do a cd / then use ./. Why?  In case have to restore in different area.

By: SRINIVAS DARIPELLI

You made it so simple on learning of linux tar command usage.

By: Sergei

What is the -j operation within a Tar command - i.e. "tar -xjvf" or "tar -jxvf" ??? I've seen it mentioned in several software installations but nowhere on "Google" when investigating what the "j" stands for - or even does? None of the Tar 'help' websites (such as this one) ever mention it...

Cheers.

By: bold

-j operation uses bzip2 compression instead of gzip (higher compression, smaller file butlower speed)

-z operation uses gzip compression (lower compression, bigger file but faster speed)