tar

This commands compresses several files and directories into a single file.

Syntax

tar [options] destination.tar files

Compact files

tar -cf files.tar /etc/ /var/

Extract files

tar -xf files.tar

Compress with gzip

tar -czf files.tar.gz /etc/ /var/

Note
The order of the options for the tar command is important. This two commands result in different files: -czf and -fzc

Extract with gzip

tar -xzf files.tar.gz

tar Options	Description
`-c`	compact
`-x`	expand
`-f`	write or read from a file
`-z`	compress or decompress with gunzip
`-j`	compress or decompress with bzip2
`-P`	use absolute routes (relative by default)
`-p`	preserve file permissions from original files
`-r`	add elements to a compacted file
`-t`	show what files are present in the tar file.