Note that this command will throw an error unless you specify the exact filename listed in the .tar file. As we cover more in the next section, you can verify file names by listing contents with the tar -tf filename.tar.gz command. DEB is the native and most common package format Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions use. It contains compiled binaries, libraries, configuration files, and metadata required to install and manage software on a Ubuntu system.

People new to the .tar format usually equate it to a .zip archive, but a tar archive is not compressed. Tar collected all the files into one package, but the files can be compressed with separate utilities. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files. In Linux, users have multiple ways to extract .tar.gz files – through the terminal and graphical file archivers. To extract all the files from a directory within a tar file use the following command. Note that the path is wrapped in quotation marks because there are spaces in the path.

1. The number represents how many levels of directories to ignore.
2. DEB is the native and most common package format Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions use.
3. However, Windows 10 users may also come across these files, which is a reason to have a way to extract their contents.

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Once you complete the steps, you will have all the files and folders extracted to the destination path you specified after a few moments. 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. In this example, the user tried to extract the file titled “FILE” from filename.tar.gz.

How to Extract/Unzip .tar.gz Files: Step-by-Step Windows and Linux Guide

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. Where .zip 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. This error usually occurs when a .tar has been saved as a .gz despite having never been compressed using the gzip utility.

Simply add a space-separated list of the files you want to extract. Technical details aside, all you need to remember is that .zip files are more accessible but less space-efficient, while .tar files are less accessible but more space-efficient. As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. 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.

Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz are more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip. Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats. Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time. 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.

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 command extracts (-x) the file (-f) specified (in this case, filename.tar.gz) to the current directory. Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2.

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format

They were officially introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, released in April 2016. The -C option is used to specify a different directory other than the current working directory. This example uses example1.tar.gz in the Home directory.

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 operating activities definition as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology.

Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive. This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks. Perhaps you might also be interested in learning how to unzip files in Linux.

Extracting .tar.gz Files for Linux

Ubuntu LTS (Long-Term Support) versions, known for their stability and extended support periods, are typically released every two years in April. These are popular for organizations and users who require a reliable and well-supported Ubuntu operating system. Many of the downloadable Linux/Unix files found on the internet are compressed using a tar.gz format. Therefore, knowing how to open or untar tar.gz files is very useful.

Canonical released its first official version of the OS, Ubuntu 4.10, codenamed ‘Warty Warthog’ in October 2004. Bobby, an editor-in-chief at Linuxiac, is a Linux professional with over 20 years of experience. If you find this article helpful or have additional ideas, please use the comment box below.

The tar command will work happily with both types of file, so it doesn’t matter which compression method was used — and it should be available everywhere you have a Bash shell. You just need to use the appropriate tar command line options. You will learn how to list the contents of a tar archive without unpacking it and how to extract only a single file or a single directory. Usually, tar files are more common with Ubuntu (other Linux distros) and macOS users for data archival and backups. However, Windows 10 users may also come across these files, which is a reason to have a way to extract their contents. The tar command also provides support for extracting only specific files or directories from a .tar.gz file.

This is because most versions of tar allow both gnu and bsd style options (simplistically, gnu requires a hyphen, bsd doesn’t). It is assumed that you are extracting a tarball created on another system. We are skipping some arguments usually necessary to preserve permissions, which on Windows 10 are not required to access the files.

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