panel 1

The tar file format combines many files into one file.

a.txt
b.txt dir/c.txt

tar files aren’t compressed by themselves. Usually you gzip them: .tar.gz or .tgz!

panel 2:

Usually when you use the ‘tar’ command, you’ll run some incantation.
To unpack a tar.gz, use: `tar -xzf file.tar.gz

person 1: what’s xzf?
person 2: let’s learn!

panel 3: -X is for extract

into the current directory by default (change with -C)

panel 4: -C is for create

makes a new tar file!

panel 5: -t is for list

lists the contents of a tar archive

panel 6: -f is for file

which tar file to create or unpack

panel 7: tar can compress / decompress

-z gzip format (.gz)
-j bzip2 format (.bz2)
-J x2 format (.xz)
& more! see the man page

panel 8: putting it together

list contents of a .tar.bz2:
$tar tvf file.tar.bz2
j = verbose

create a .tar.gz:
$ tar -c2f file.tar.gz dir/
dir/ = files to go in the archive