tarball- Linux

tar stands for tape archive. It is used to create an archive or extract the archive. A compressed or uncompressed archive can be created with it. A file with tar extension is commonly called “tarball”.

• file.tar.gz - means archived and compressed
• file.gz - means only compressed, simple gzip and gunzip command works with it.

Archive = bundling / packaging multiple things together

Compress = shrinking / squeezing to save space

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Syntax

tar [options] [archive-file] [file or directory to be archived]

options
-c : Creates Archive
-x : Extract the archive
-f : creates archive with given filename
-t : displays or lists files in archived file
-u : archives and adds to an existing archive file
-v : Displays Verbose Information
-A : Concatenates the archive files
-z : zip, tells tar command that creates tar file using gzip
-j : filter archive tar file using tbzip
-W : Verify a archive file
-r : update or add file or directory in already existed .tar file

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The magic behind configure, make, make install

./configure    #Configure the software
make           #Build the software
make install   #Install the software

Learn the magic

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Example

# Download the desired .tar.gz or (.tar.bz2) file
# Open Terminal

# Extract the .tar.gz or (.tar.bz2) file with the following commands
tar xvzf PACKAGENAME.tar.gz
tar xvjf PACKAGENAME.tar.bz2

# Navigate to the extracted folder using cd command
cd PACKAGENAME

# Now run the following command to install the tarball
./configure
make
sudo make install

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zip/unzip

for files ending with .zip, we can use the zip and unzip command. Here is a list of some of the mst useful commands.

Command	What it does	When you need it
unzip file.zip	Extract everything to current folder	Basic extract
unzip file.zip -d myfolder	Extract into a specific folder	Avoid mess in current directory
unzip -l file.zip	List contents (don’t extract)	Check what’s inside first
unzip file.zip somefile.txt	Extract only specific file(s)	Need just one file
zip -r archive.zip folder/	Zip a whole folder recursively	Most common “backup / share folder”
zip -r archive.zip .	Zip everything in current directory	Quick full current-folder archive
zip -r -9 archive.zip folder/	Zip with maximum compression	When file size really matters
zip -u archive.zip newfile.txt	Add / update file in existing zip	Incrementally add files later

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