How can I un-tar a tar file?

newbie question

[bohemian]

Hello everyone,

I have another newbie question please, can you tell me or point me to an online tutorial on how to un-tar a .tar file? I mean those files end with tar.gz or .tar extensions... I want to install this php script, but it's compiled in the tar format and I don't know how to un-tar.

Thanks in advance!

[Nick_W]

tar -xzvf file.tar.gz

Nick

[dingman]

end with tar.gz or .tar extensions

Nick's command will work on .tar.gz (or .tgz). Take out the 'z' for a plain .tar. Replace it with a 'j' for .tar.bz. Run 'man tar' for more complete instructions on using tar.

[bohemian]

Thanks much for reply guys! I appreciate it.

I don't know how to use SSH and that command line, I think I have a lot of things to learn.

Thanks again!

[Allen]

You can get tar for Windows - Google is your friend :)

Commands are exactly the same.

Allen

[digitalghost]

You can listen to the command line Geeks, or you can download WinZip. Just click on the tarball and the prompt will ask you where you want to download it to...

Good God you tech Geeks make it hard on the newbie. ;)

[andreasfriedrich]

You can get the tar source and compile it yourself. Then run it from the command line. GNU [gnu.org] tar is FREE while WinZip is not ;). Thus you are a better person when using the command line tool. And you are a even better person and might enjoy chatting with littleman on the joy of compiling [webmasterworld.com] when you build tar yourself ;).

Andreas

[digitalghost]

Andreas, I am ashamed. Ashamed for promoting WinZip, even though you can use it in perpetuity for free, ashamed, for I am a Win junkie, and lo though I wish to walk proudly through the valley of Littleman, my FILE and My Computer comfort me.

I shall fear no GNU, for thy word and thy compilation comfort me. ;)

[andreasfriedrich]

Well, dg there is still hope for you since you seem to repent using these evil products. (Or as the angel at the end of Goethe´s Faust II says: Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, den können wir erlösen.) And even though I walk through the valley of Windoze myself as well, I will fear no evil for my GNU [gnu.org] system is always with me, providing all my files that I work with.

GNU [gnu.org] is the brightest beacon for free software. With your mentioning of Windoze and WinZip we saw evil, the very worst of software developement and I responded with the best of the free software community.

Now should be a time when all computer users from every walk of life unite in our resolve for free and non-proprietary software. The GNU [gnu.org] community has stood down any enemies before and will do so again and again. Thus we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our software world. Thank you. Good night and God bless GNU [gnu.org].

[bohemian]

Thanks mucho for the help everyone!

I visited the GNU site, but more I read, more I confused... I'm a super newbie about this.

As digitalghost suggested, I used winzip to untar the file, and I successfully installed the php script. I'd like to try other methods when I have a time, but it seems like winzip is a easiest way to do the job for a super newbie like me.

May I ask you one more thing, please?

I heard somebody saying that if I use winzip to untar a .tar file or a .gz file, winzip mess-up some of the code, have you ever heard about it? The php script seems like working properly, so it should not be problem, but just wondering if you experts ever heard about this before?

Thanks again everyone!

[dingman]

You can listen to the command line Geeks, or you can

use Fileroller, Guitar, Ark, or another GUI tool under X. Pretty point-and-click interfaces aren't solely the province of the Evil Empire.

'course, I'm a command line geek. I don't actually use any of those. Maybe they're great, maybe they're evil. I don't know. I can't immagine a GUI that could let me manipulate compressed files as quickly as the command line does, so my "gui" for tar is Bash running in an Xterm ;)