# tar
> Archiving utility
> Optional compression with gzip / bzip
- create an archive from files
`tar cf {{target.tar}} {{file1 file2 file3}}`
- create a gzipped archive
`tar czf {{target.tar.gz}} {{file1 file2 file3}}`
- extract an archive in a target folder
`tar xf {{source.tar}} -C {{folder}}`
- extract a gzipped archive in the current directory
`tar xzf {{source.tar.gz}}`
- extract a bzipped archive in the current directory
`tar xjf {{source.tar.bz2}}`
- create a compressed archive, using archive suffix to determine the compression program
`tar caf {{target.tar.xz}} {{file1 file2 file3}}`
- list the contents of a tar file
`tar tvf {{source.tar}}`
