TAR = Tape Archive but it is essentially the native linux format of creating an archive. Gzip = Compressed. Together a Gzipped Tar is the linux equivalent of a Zip.
To create a gzipped TAR archive of all files in the current directory do this:
tar -czvf archive.tgz *
to tar-gz the xfiles folder into xarchive.tgz do:
tar -czvf xarchive.tgz xfiles/
To extract the archive contents to the current directory do:
tar -xzvf archive.tgz
to extract to a specific existing dir do:
tar -xzvf archive.tgz -C /my/exisiting/path/
c – create a archive file.
x – extract a archive file.
v – show the progress of archive file.
f – filename of archive file.
t – viewing content of archive file.
j – filter archive through bzip2.
z – filter archive through gzip.
r – append or update files or directories to existing archive file.
W – Verify a archive file.