How To Compress Files On Ubuntu With Tar And Gzip

Q: What if I want to unzip a file without using tar?

If you only want to unzip a .gz file without extracting a tarball, use: gzip -d myfile.gz This will decompress the file without unpacking everything.

How to Compress Files on Ubuntu with Tar and Gzip: So, you’ve got a bunch of files on your Ubuntu machine and they’re just sitting there, taking up space. Or maybe you need to send someone a whole folder, but you don’t want to bombard them with individual files. Trust me, I’ve been there too. Luckily, Ubuntu makes it super easy to compress files, and I’m going to walk you through using tar and gzip to get the job done. It’s like bundling everything into a nice, neat package.

Table of Contents

What are tar and gzip?

Before we dive in, let me break down what these tools actually do (in plain English, of course).

tar: Think of tar as a box. It takes a bunch of files and folders and bundles them into one file, but it doesn’t shrink the size. It’s just packaging everything together.
gzip: Now, this is where the magic happens. Gzip takes that box (the tar file) and makes it smaller by compressing it. Pretty cool, right?

Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s get into the steps.

Step 1: Open the Terminal

First things first, let’s open the terminal. You can press Ctrl + Alt + T, and boom, your terminal window opens up. Easy, right?

I know, the terminal might seem intimidating at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll wonder why you ever hesitated. Honestly, I’ve done this process so many times that it feels like second nature.

Step 2: Navigate to Your Folder

Now that you’ve got the terminal open, we need to go to the folder where all your files are sitting. Let’s say you have a folder called Documents. Here’s how you do it:

cd ~/Documents

That little ~ is just a shorthand for your home directory. So if your folder’s somewhere else, just replace Documents with the right path.

Step 3: Bundle Files Using tar

Okay, this is where the fun begins. We’re going to bundle all the files in your folder into one single tar file. Let’s say you want to call this tar file myfiles.tar. Run this command:

tar -cvf myfiles.tar *

-c: Create a new archive
-v: Verbose mode (this just means you’ll see what’s happening, which is nice)
-f: Specifies the filename (in this case, myfiles.tar)
*: This grabs all the files in the folder

When you hit Enter, you’ll see all the files being bundled up. It’s like packing up all your clothes into one suitcase before a trip. Now, you’ve got everything in one place, but the size hasn’t changed yet. For that, we need gzip.

Step 4: Compress the tar File with gzip

Now let’s shrink that file down! Run this command to compress your tar file using gzip:

gzip myfiles.tar

After a few seconds (depending on how many files you’ve got), you’ll see that the file has been renamed to myfiles.tar.gz. The .gz means it’s compressed.

Let me tell you, this has saved me tons of space over the years. You’ll love how much room you can free up on your system.

Step 5: Verify the Compression

You’re probably wondering how much space you’ve saved, right? Here’s how to check:

ls -lh

The -lh flag will show you the size of the files in a human-readable format (like MBs or GBs). You’ll see that myfiles.tar.gz is a lot smaller than the original tar file. Compression magic at work!

Step 6: Extracting the Compressed File

Now, let’s say your friend received your compressed file, and they’re asking you how to open it. Here’s what you’d tell them.

To extract a .tar.gz file, just run:

tar -xvzf myfiles.tar.gz

-x: Extract the file
-v: Verbose mode, again
-z: Tells tar to use gzip
-f: Specifies the filename

After running this, they’ll see all the files pop back out, just like unpacking that suitcase after a trip.

Personal Tip: When Things Go Wrong

There have been times when I’ve run into issues, especially when trying to compress or extract huge files. Sometimes, you might get permission errors. If that happens, just add sudo at the beginning of your command. Like this:

sudo tar -cvf myfiles.tar *

Adding sudo gives you superuser permissions, which means you’re the boss. Just be careful, because with great power comes great responsibility!

Step 7: Cleaning Up

After you’ve created and sent your compressed file, you might want to clean up your working directory. If you don’t need the original files anymore, just delete them using:

rm -rf myfiles.tar

But be careful! The rm -rf command deletes files permanently, so make sure you really don’t need them anymore.

Real-Life Example: Saving Space for Backup

I’ve used this method more times than I can count, especially when backing up my system. A few months ago, I had to back up a whole project folder that was over 2GB in size. After using tar and gzip, I got it down to just 500MB. Trust me, this trick is a lifesaver, especially when you’re running low on storage or need to upload files somewhere quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What happens if I skip gzip and just use tar?

Well, nothing bad will happen, but your file won’t be any smaller. Tar just packages your files together without compressing them. If you want to save space, definitely use gzip.

Can I compress files individually?

Yes, you can. Instead of compressing the whole folder, you can specify the individual like this, Run: tar -cvf myfile.tar myfile.txt then gzip myfile.tar

What if I want to unzip a file without using tar?

If you only want to unzip a .gz file without extracting a tarball, use: gzip -d myfile.gz This will decompress the file without unpacking everything.

Conclusion: You’ve Got This!

That’s pretty much it! Compressing files on Ubuntu with tar and gzip is super simple once you get the hang of it. Whether you’re saving space or sending files to a friend, this method is a real time-saver. Now, it’s your turn—go ahead and give it a try. Trust me, once you start using it, you won’t believe how easy it is!