How to use tar command in Linux?

The tar command on Linux is often used to create or extract .tar.gz or .tgz archive files, also called "tarballs". Command has integrated compression, It can create a .tar archive and then compress it with gzip (.tar.gz) or bzip2 (.tar.bz2) compression in a single command.

Compress an Entire Directory or a Single File

tar -czvf <name of archive>.tar.gz <path to directory or file>
tar -czvf banks.tar.gz /var/data/banks

Below are the details of the options used:

• -c: Create an archive.
• -z: Compress the archive with gzip.
• -v: Display progress in the terminal while creating the archive, also known as “verbose” mode. The v is always optional in these commands, but it’s helpful.
• -f: Allows you to specify the filename of the archive.

Compress Multiple Directories or Files at Once

tar -czvf <name of archive>.tar.gz <path to directory or file seperated by space>
tar -czvf banks.tar.gz /var/data/banks /var/data/bank_codes.csv