opening a .tar.gz file with a single command

Question

when I download a .tar.gz file, I open it with two commands, first gunzip and then tar.

Is it possible to open it with just one command?

Answer 1

tar xzf file.tar.gz

The letters are:

• x - extract
• z - gunzip the input
• f - Read from a file, not stdin

Answer 2

You can use tar with a "z" argument

tar xvfz mytar.tar.gz

Answer 3

If you don't have gnu tar it is still possible to open the file in a single step (although technically still two commands) using a pipe

zcat file.tar.gz |tar x

Answer 4

The only thing that I would add is that z usually only works on gnu tar. The typical UNIX tar won't have this in my experience at least. – Jon Mar 16 at 16:19

The z option works well on my OS-X 10.5 as well.

When it comes to memorizing, I think it´s easy to think of what you want and not just some letters.

1. If you want to create an archive, then c will be the first option, else x will be the first option if you want to e**x**tract.
2. If you want to compress/decompress with the g**z**ip/gun**z**ip program, then the next option should be z for zip. (All archives ending with .gz must be unzipped with the z option)
3. The last mandatory option is f for the file.

Then you usually end up with these two commands:

• tar czf file.tar.gz /folder_to_archive/*
• tar xzf file.tar.gz

Answer 5

On Windows Try the tartool utility http://tartool.codeplex.com/

The code is open source and uses SharpZipLib library.

Disclaimer : I am the author of this utility.