Packers and compressors are key elements in the management of files and data in the computer field. The packers allow to group several files in a single container, facilitating their handling and transport. On the other hand, compressors apply techniques to reduce file size, contributing to storage space savings and expediting data transfer. These tools play a crucial role in resource optimization and operational efficiency by more effectively organizing, distributing and supporting information.

TAR

It is a file packer that as its own name indicates uses the .tar format, it is basically used to store files and directories in the same file.

The name of the package is tar.

Create a .tar file

You can create compressions. An example of this type of file is:

tar -cvf sampleArchive.tar /home/sampleArchive

Here / home / sampleArchive is the directory that needs to be compressed creating ampleArchive.tar. This command uses the -cvf options that mean:

  • c - create a new .tar file
  • v - shows a detailed description of the progress of the compression
  • f - file name

Create a .tar.gz file

If you want better compression, you can also use .tar.gz. An example of this is:

tar -cvzf sampleArchive.tar.gz /home/sampleArchive

The additional option * * z * * represents gzip compression. Alternatively, you can create a .tgz file that is similar to tar.gz. We show you an example of the latter:

tar -cvzf sampleArchive.tgz /home/sampleArchive

Create a .tar.bz2 file

The .bz2 file provides more compression compared to gzip. However, this alternative will take more time to compress and decompress. To use it, you must use the -j option. An example of how the operation would look is as follows:

tar -cvjf sampleArchive.tar.bz2 /home/sampleArchive

This operation is similar to .tar.tbz or .tar.tb2. I’ll show you an example below:

tar -cvjf sampleArchive.tar.tbz /home/sampleArchive tar -cvjf sampleArchive.tar.tb2 /home/sampleArchive

How to decompress .tar files

The Linux Tar command can also be used to extract a file. The following command will remove the files in the current directory:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar

If you want to extract your files to a different directory, you can use the -C option. We show you an example of this below:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar -C /home/ExtractedFiles/

You can use a similar command to uncompress .tar.gz files, as shown below:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar.gz

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar.gz -C /home/ExtractedFiles/

.tar.bz2 or .tar.tbz or .tar.tb2 files can be decompressed in a similar way. For this you will need to type the following command in the command line:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar.bz2

How to list the content of a .tar file

Once you have created the file, you can list the content by a command similar to the following:

tar -tvf sampleArchive.tar

This will show the complete list of files along with time marks and permissions. Similarly, for .tar.gz, you can use a command like:

tar -tvf sampleArchive.tar.gz

This would also work for .tar.bz2 files as shown below: tar -tvf sampleArchive.tar.bz2

How to decompress a single .tar file

Once you create a compressed file, you can extract a single file from that tablet. This you can do with the command we show you below:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar example.sh

Here example.sh is a unique file that will be removed from the sample tablet Archive.tar. Alternatively, you can also use the following command:

tar --extract --file= sampleArchive.tar example.sh

To extract a single file from a .tar.gz tablet you can use a command similar to that shown below:

tar -zxvf sampleArchive.tar.gz example.sh

Or alternatively:

tar --extract --file= sampleArchive.tar.gz example.sh

To extract a single file from a .tar.bz2 tablet you can use a command like this:

tar -jxvf sampleArchive.tar.bz2 example.sh

Or, alternatively, one like this:

tar --extract --file= sampleArchive.tar.bz2 example.sh

How to extract multiple files from .tar files

In case you want to extract several files, use the following command format:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar "file1" "file2"

For .tar.gz you can use:

tar -zxvf sampleArchive.tar.gz "file1" "file2"

For .tar.bz2 you can use:

tar -jxvf sampleArchive.tar.bz2 "file1" "file2"

Extract multiple files with a pattern

If you want to remove from the tablet specific file patterns like only .jpg, use the wildcards command. A sample of this command is shown below:

tar -xvf sampleArchive.tar --wildcards '\*.jpg'

For .tar.gz you can use:

tar -zxvf sampleArchive.tar.gz --wildcards '\*.jpg'

For .tar.bz2 you can use:

tar -jxvf sampleArchive.tar.bz2 --wildcards '\*.jpg'

How to add files to a .tar file

While you can extract specific files, you can also add new files to an existing compressed file. To do so, you must use the -r option that means adding. The Tar command can add both files and directories.

Below is an example in which we are adding example.jpg to the existing sampleArchive.tar.

tar -rvf sampleArchive.tar example.jpg

We can also add a directory. In the example shown below, the image\ _ dir directory is added to the sampleArchive.tar file

tar -rvf sampleArchive.tar image\_dir

You cannot add files or folders to .tar.gz or .tar.bz2. tablets

How to verify a .tar file

Using Tar can verify a file. This is one of the ways you can do it:

tar -tvf sampleArchive.tar

This cannot be applied in .tar.gz or .tar.bz2. files

How to verify the size of the .tar file

Once you create a file, you can check its size. This will be shown in KB (Kilobytes).

Below are several examples of the command to be used to verify the size of different types of compressed files:

tar -czf - sampleArchive.tar | wc -c
tar -czf - sampleArchive.tar.gz | wc -c tar -czf - sampleArchive.tar.bz2 | wc -c

GZIP

You can compress a file using gzip with the command called gzip. Name of this package is gzip.

This is the simplest use: gzip filename

This will compress the file and add an .gz extension to it. The original file is deleted. To avoid this, you can use the - c and use the output redirection to write the output on the filename.gzfile:

gzip -c filename > filename.gz

the -c The option specifies that the output will go to the standard output flow, leaving the original file intact or you can use the -k option:

gzip -k filename

There are several levels of compression. The longer the compression, the longer it will take to compress (and decompress). The levels range from 1 (faster, worse compression) to 9 (slower, better compression), and the default value is 6.

You can choose a specific level with the - option:

gzip -1 filename

You can compress several files by listing them:

gzip filename1 filename2

You can compress all files in a directory, recursively, using the -r:

gzip -r folder

gzipcan also be used to decompress a file, using the -d option:

gzip -d filename.gz

BZIP2

The bzip2 is very similar to the gzip program. The main difference is that it uses a different compression algorithm called Burrows-Wheeler block classification text compression algorithm and Huffman coding. The bzip2 compressed files will end with the .bz2. extension

As I said, the use of bzip2 is almost the same as gzip. We will simply have to replace gzip in the above examples with bzip2, gunzip by bunzip2, zcat with bzcat and so on.

    • To compress a file using bzip2, replacing it with a compressed version, we will run: * *
bzip2 prueba.txt # Nos creara un archivo prueba.txt.bz2
    • Compress files without removing the original file * *

If we do not want to replace the original file, we will use the -c option and write the result into a new file.

Bzip2 -c prueba.txt  # prueba.txt.bz2
    • Uncompress files * *

To decompress a compressed file we will use one of the following two possibilities:

bzip2 -d prueba.txt.bz2
bunzip2 prueba.txt.bz2
    • See the contents of the compressed files without uncompressing them * *

To see the content of a compressed file without uncompressing it, we will have to use any of the options:

bunzip2 -c ubunlog.txt.bz2 bzcat ubunlog.txt.bz2

XZ

The packages are xz-utils

♪ Compress ♪

The simplest example of compression of a xz file is the following. File Compression with XZ

xz  deb.iso

The -z option can also be used to perform the compression:

xz -z  deb.iso

These orders will compress the file, but will remove the source file. If we do not seek to delete the source files, we will use the -k option as follows:

xz -k deb.iso
    • Uncompress * *

To decompress a file, we will be able to use the -d option:

xz -d deb.iso
unxz deb.iso
    • Forging compression * *

If an operation fails, for example, if there is a compressed file with the same name, we will use the -f option to force the process:

xz -kf deb.iso
    • Set compression levels * *

This tool supports different pre-established compression levels (0 to 9. With a default value of 6). We will also be able to use aliases like -fast (will be fast, but with less compression) to set as 0 and -best to set as 9 (slow but higher compression). Examples of how to set these levels are:

xz -k -8 deb.iso
xz -k --best deb.iso
    • Limit memory * *

In case you have a small amount of system memory and want to compress a huge file, we will have the possibility to use the -memory = limit option (the limit value may be in MB or as a percentage of RAM) to set a memory use limit for compression:

xz -k --best --memlimit-compress=10% deb.iso

♪ Enable silent mode ♪

If we are interested in running the compression in silent mode, only the -q option will have to be added. We can also enable the detailed mode with -v, as shown below:

xz -k -q deb.iso
xz -k -qv deb.iso
    • Create a tar.xz file * *

The following is an example of use to get a file with the tar.xz. extension.

tar -cf *.txt | xz -7 > deb.tar.xz

Create a tar.xz file option 2

tar -cJf deb.tar.xz *.txt
    • Check the integrity of the compressed files * *

We can test the integrity of the compressed files using the -t option. Using -l we can see information about a compressed file.

xz -t deb.tar.xz xz -l deb.tar.xz

#7Z

This compressor has two packages:

  • p7zip offers support for 7zr (a light version of 7z and 7za). It allows you to compress and decompress packages in these formats by using your system’s graphic tool (file-roll in Ubuntu and Debian) but does not have the encryption functionality.
  • p7zip-full is, to put it in some way, the most complete version. Supports 7z and 7za formats and incorporates encryption functionality, in addition to compression tools

ZIP

    • Compress One or Several Files * *

The format is always the same, it consists of placing 7z, followed by the option to (to compress or pack), followed by the name you want to give to the final package (no need to place the extension .7z) and ending with the name of the file to compress. You can see that 7-Zip is able to take advantage of all the cores of your processor during the operation.

7z a paquete-comprimido archivo-a-comprimir 7z a paquete-comprimido archivo-1 archivo-2

If we want to put a password, we use the -p parameter:

7z  a -p paquete-comprimido archivo-a-comprimir

7-Zip supports several compression or packaging formats, other than its own, with this sentence you can choose to explicitly indicate which format you want to use (you can choose between 7z, zip, gzip, bzip2 or tar).

7z a -tgzip paquete-comprimido archivo-a-comprimir
    • List Tablet Folder Content * *

Another interesting option can be to list the content within a file and see the details. To do this, you must also place yourself in the directory where the compressed file or folder is located and type the following sentence.

7z l paquete-comprimido.7z
    • Uncompress Package and Remove Files * *

Once you have known the content within the file, to pull out all the content within the current work directory, you can use the following command:

7z e paquete-comprimido.7z
    • Check Data Integrity * *

As an additional option, you can also check the integrity of the different files inside the compressed file. This is what you use:

7z t paquete-comprimida.7z

RAR

The package to install it is rar.

    • How to compress RAR in Linux * *

To compress a file or all of a folder:

rar a nombre_fichero_comprimido.rar nombre_fichero_a_comprimir rar a nombre_fichero_comprimido.rar
    • How to decompress RAR in Linux * *

And to decompress in the same directory or another different one:

unrar x nombre\_del\_rar.rar

unrar x nombre\_del\_rar.rar /ruta/destino/descomprimido

ZIP

The name of the package is zip.

To compress files:

zip archivo.zip archivos

To decompress files:

unzip archivo.zip

See content:

unzip -v archivo.zip

Bibliography

  • [Tar command guide] (https: / / www.hostinger.es / tutorials / como-usar-comando -tar-linux)
  • [Gzip command guide] (https: / / tech-wiki.online / es / linux-command-gzip.html)
  • [Bzip2 command guide] (https: / / ubunlog.com / comprymir-decomprymir-gzip-bzip2 / # The _ program _ bzip2)
  • [Guide xz] (https: / / ubunlog.com / compression-xz-datos-sin-lost /)
  • [Command guide 7z] (https: / / computernewage.com / 2016 / 01 / 10 / 7-zip-linux-guia -para-comprimir-y-decomprimir-files / # install -7-zip)
  • [Rar command guide] (https: / / www.linuxaditos.com / tutorial-para-install-rari-en-linux@-@ y-learn-use)