How to Open a TAR File on PC & Mac: 3 Easy Ways

Publicado Por Alfonso Moraleja Juárez el 09/06/2023

Technical details aside, all you need to remember is that .zip files are more accessible but less space-efficient, while .tar files are less accessible but more space-efficient. As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. And now you can use the 7-Zip File Manager to open, view, or extract files from tar.gz and other archives. If you want a specific file, you can drill down into the folder, or you can simply click the «Extract» button and choose a location to put all the files.

How to Untar, Unzip, or Extract Tar.gz Files in Linux

Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz are more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip. With the command prompt open, use the appropriate commands to change the current working directory (cd) to the location of the .tar.gz file you want to unzip. Alternatively, you can also specify a source and destination file path when using the tar utility. Unlike Windows’ convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for unzipping .zip files, you need to use the tar utility through the command line. However, there are also many third-party tools you can install for a more user-friendly experience.

We’ll show you the easiest ways to open TAR, TGZ, and TAR.GZ files on any PC or Mac. The extraction method is precisely the same for tar files that have compression, such as.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, and others. 7-Zip is a free and open-source tool with high compression ratios & supports a wide range of archive formats.

• This simplifies file management and reduces the risk of data loss during transfers.
• It is usually convenient to pipe the output through the less command.
• Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive.

Tips

In short, Gzip compresses all the individual files and tar packages them in a single archive. Installing tar and gzip in Ubuntu is a straightforward process that requires only how to run a successful 1-on-1 meeting with a developer a few steps. By following these steps, you can ensure that your Ubuntu system has the necessary packages to perform various tasks, including compressing and decompressing files. Whether you need to compress files for backup or compress data for transfer, tar and gzip are essential tools to have in your Linux toolkit. For more on how to manage file compression effectively, check out this guide on using tar in Linux for archiving and extracting files.

Untar command in Linux CentOS

Here are comprehensive instructions for utilizing various commands and tools. To extract all the files from a directory within a tar file use the following command. Note that the path is wrapped in quotation marks because there are spaces in the path.

• You can open most .tar.gz files using the tar command built in to Linux, macOS, and Windows 10.
• This means it takes all the specified files and puts them together into one container.
• 7-Zip is a free and open-source tool with high compression ratios & supports a wide range of archive formats.
• Though both .zip and .tar.gz archive and compress files, they do so in different ways.

Using this method lets you quickly package files into a tidy tarball. When you encounter TGZ, GZ, or TAR.GZ files, you will typically need to extract them to access the files contained within. As the files are extracted, they are listed in the terminal window. In most platforms, the chances are that you already possess the right application to extract and open TGZ files. Linux, of about bdswiss review 2018 course, can open these files natively, while most Mac and Windows computers have software like the Unarchiver or 7-Zip installed on them.

This article aims to provide detailed instructions on how to unzip, open, or extract TGZ, GZ, and TAR.GZ files in Windows 11/10. Using gzip for file compression in Linux can significantly boost your file management efficiency and streamline data transfers. Whether you’re dealing with a large database or optimizing disk space, gzip is kraken exchange review 2021 a reliable tool. It enables file compression directly from the command line, which is invaluable when managing multiple files and folders.

Unzip, open or extract TGZ, GZ, TAR.GZ Files in Windows 11/10

If we want to extract the files to a location other than the current directory, we can specify a target directory using the -C (specified directory) option. Mac users can also use this command to extract their tar.gz files, though they also have access to a GUI-based method we will discuss in the next section. If you are into coding or just downloading a package from Github, you may come across the TAR.GZ file extension.

What is the Tar Command?

7-Zip makes it easy and efficient, whether you’re working with software distributions or massive data backups. By following the steps outlined above, you’ll be able to unpack any .tar.gz files that come your way. To unzip the .tar.gz files, you’ll need to use specific commands and tools depending on your operating system. Let’s explore the extraction process for both Linux & Windows platforms.

It’s an old utility, invented mainly for accurate data transfer to devices without their own file systems. A tar file (or tarball) contains files in a sequential format, along with metadata about the directory structure and other technical parameters. When you extract files from a .tar.gz archive, the checksum is automatically verified to detect & handle any potential data corruption. This error usually occurs when a .tar has been saved as a .gz despite having never been compressed using the gzip utility. It may sound like a silly mistake, but it’s surprisingly common in situations where users directly rename files and their extensions (such as .tar and .gz) in the process.

How to Extract or Unzip tar.gz Files Using Bash on Windows 10 or 11

Since Windows doesn’t natively support tar.gz files, you need a third-party tool to open them for you. Most file extraction applications like 7-Zip or WinZip will get the job done. It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu.

Once you have downloaded the .tar.gz file, you can extract it using the tar command. The tar command is a powerful tool that allows you to extract compressed files. So far we’ve just taken a leap of faith and extracted the files sight unseen.

This makes it easier to combine and compress many documents into one neat, smaller package. Understanding commands is critical for securing and controlling access to the data in your environment. StrongDM streamlines permission management, allowing you to protect your most sensitive systems, including those that handle data archives in Linux. You might come across a few problems when using the command-line interface to extract .tar.gz files. This command downloads the archive and quickly extracts it without saving the compressed file locally.

In this article, we will cover the steps to extract a .tar.gz file in Linux, including how to use the tar command, how to use the unzip command, and how to use the 7z command. As we see later, different compression utilities may require different methods for extracting and unzipping files. Though we mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats. Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed. In other words, .zip files are a collection of compressed files, while .tar files are a compressed collection of files.