Archiving with Tar

Tar files place several files or the contents of a directory or directories in one file

tar -cvf filename.tar files/directories

To list the contents of a tar file, type: 

#tar -tvf test.tar

To extract the contents of a tar file, type:  

#tar -xvf test.tar

The tar command does not compress files automatically. 

You can compress tar files with:

#tar -czvf test.tar

Compressed tar files are conventionally given the extension .tgz and are compressed with gzip.To expand a compressed tar file type:

#tar -xzvf test.tgz