How to use tar to backup and restore folders and servers

The tar command, also known as a "tape archive", is used to compress files and folders in Linux operating systems. It creates a tar archive by converting a group of files or directories into a single compressed file. It allows you to decompress the tar archive, prints a list of all files included in the archive, and add the file to the archive. Generally, the system administrator uses the tar command to create and restore a backup on the server.

This tutorial will show you how to compress and decompress files and directories using the tar command in Linux.

Table Of Contents

• Tar Command Syntax
• Create a Tar Archive
• Create a Tar Bz2 Archive
• Create a Tar Gzip Archive
• List Content of Tar Archive
• Extract a Tar Archive
• Extract a Tar Gzip Archive
• Extract a Tar Bz2 Archive
• Extract a Tar Archive in a Different Directory
• Add and Remove a File from a Tar Archive
• Extract Multiple Files from the Tar Archive
• Conclusion

Tar Command Syntax

The basic syntax of the tar command is shown below:

tar [option] [archive-name] [files or directories]

A brief explanation of each option is shown below:

• -c: Used to create a tar archive.

• -x: Used to extract from the tar archive.

• -t: Used to display a list of files inside the tar archive.

• -r: Used to add an additional file in the tar archive.

• -W: Used to verify a tar archive.

• -z: Used to create a tar archive using gzip.

• -j: Used to create a tar archive using bzip.

• -v: Used to display verbose information.

• -f: Used to specify archive file name.

Create a Tar Archive

To create a tar archive named compress-file.tar from a single file named file1.txt, run the following command:

tar -cf compress-file.tar file1.txt

To create a tar archive named compress-file.tar from multiple files called file1.txt, file2.txt and file3.txt, run the following command:

tar -cf compress-file.tar file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

If you want to create a tar archive of any directory, run the following command:

tar -cf compress-dir.tar dir1

This will create a tar archive named compress-dir.tar from a directory dir1.

Create a Tar Bz2 Archive

You can also compress a tar file using a bz2 algorithm. You will need to specify tar.bz2 at the end of the archive name.

The following command will create a tar.bz2 archive from the directory /etc.

tar -cjf compress.tar.bz2 /etc

You can also specify the -v option to display the compression process verbose.

Create a Tar Gzip Archive

You can use the -z option with the tar command to create a tar archive in gzip format.

The following command will create a tar.gz archive from the /usr directory.

tar -czf compress.tar.gz /use

List Content of Tar Archive

You can use the option -t with the tar command to display a list of content available in the tar archive file.

The following example will display a list of content inside the compress-dir.tar file:

tar -tvf compress-dir.tar

Extract a Tar Archive

You can use the option -x with the tar command to uncompress the tar archive.

For example, run the following command to uncompress a compress-dir.tar file:

tar -xvf compress-dir.tar

If you want to extract a single file named file1.txt from the compress-dir.tar file, run the following command:

tar -xvf compress-dir.tar file1.txt

Extract a Tar Gzip Archive

You can use the option -z with the tar command to extract or uncompress the Gzip archive file.

For example, run the following command to extract the compress.tar.gz archive file:

tar -xzvf compress.tar.gz

Extract a Tar Bz2 Archive

You can use option -j with the tar command to extract from the Bz2 archive.

For example, run the following command to extract the compress.tar.bz2 archive file.

tar -xjvf compress.tar.bz2

Extract a Tar Archive in a Different Directory

When you extract any tar archive, it will extract the archive contents in the current directory. You can use option -C with the tar command to extract the tar archive to the specified directory.

For example, run the following command to extract the compress-dir.tar content to the /opt directory:

tar -xvf compress-dir.tar -C /opt

Add and Remove a File from a Tar Archive

You can also add and remove specific files and directories to an existing tar archive. You can use the option -r to add a file to a tar archive and the option --delete to delete a file from the tar archive.

For example, to add a new file named file6.txt to the archive name compress-dir.tar, run the following command:

tar -rvf compress-dir.tar file6.txt

To remove a file named file1.txt from the archive named compress-dir.tar, run the following command:

tar --delete -f compress-dir.tar file1.txt

Extract Multiple Files from the Tar Archive

You can use a wildcard to extract a group of files from the tar archive.

For example, extract all files that match the pattern .html from the archive compress.tar.gz use the following command:

tar -xvzf compress.tar.gz --wildcards '*.html'

Conclusion

The above guide taught you how to compress and extract files and directories with the tar command. I hope you can now you the tar command to backup and restore files and directories.

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