10 advanced uses of the tar command

Sure! Here are ten advanced tar commands along with detailed explanations:

1. Create a gzipped archive

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory

Explanation:

• -c: Create a new archive.
• -z: Compress the archive using gzip.
• -v: Verbose mode, showing the progress in the terminal.
• -f: Specify the filename of the archive.
• /path/to/directory: The directory to be archived.

2. Extract a bzipped archive

tar -xjvf archive.tar.bz2

Explanation:

• -x: Extract files from an archive.
• -j: Use bzip2 compression.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the filename of the archive.

3. Create an archive excluding specific files

tar --exclude='/path/to/exclude' -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory

Explanation:

• --exclude='/path/to/exclude': Exclude the specified path from the archive.
• Other options as explained in the first command.

4. Extract specific files from an archive

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz path/to/file1 path/to/file2

Explanation:

• -x: Extract files.
• -z: Use gzip compression.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the archive file.
• path/to/file1 path/to/file2: Paths to the specific files to extract.

5. Create an archive with a specific directory structure

tar --transform 's,^,/newdir/,' -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory

Explanation:

• --transform 's,^,/newdir/,': Use sed-style transformations to modify file names in the archive. This example prepends /newdir/ to each file name.
• Other options as explained in the first command.

6. Append files to an existing archive

tar -rvf archive.tar /path/to/newfile

Explanation:

• -r: Append files to the end of an archive.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the archive file.
• /path/to/newfile: The file to append.

7. List contents of an archive

tar -tvf archive.tar.gz

Explanation:

• -t: List the contents of an archive.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the archive file.

8. Extract an archive to a specific directory

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz -C /path/to/extract

Explanation:

• -x: Extract files.
• -z: Use gzip compression.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the archive file.
• -C /path/to/extract: Change to the specified directory before extracting files.

9. Create a multi-volume archive

tar -cvf - /path/to/large-directory | split -b 2G - archive.part.tar.gz

Explanation:

• -cvf -: Create an archive and write it to stdout.
• /path/to/large-directory: The directory to be archived.
• split -b 2G - archive.part.tar.gz: Split the output into 2GB parts.

10. Verify the integrity of an archive

tar -tvf archive.tar.gz > /dev/null

Explanation:

• -t: List the contents of an archive.
• -v: Verbose mode.
• -f: Specify the archive file.
• > /dev/null: Discard the output. The command will fail if there are any errors in the archive.

These commands cover a range of advanced tar usage scenarios, including compression, extraction, file exclusion, directory transformation, and multi-volume archives.