High compression and quick decompression are offered by the xz utility. Knowing how to unzip Gz files in Linux is a crucial skill for any Linux user. In this guide, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step process on how to unzip a GZ file in Linux using both the command line and GUI tools. We’ll also cover other essential concepts like file compression, Gzip command Linux, and troubleshooting common errors.
Programs that open GZ files
You can Untar Gzip-compressed Tar archives using the -x (extract) flag the Tar command provides. Using the first command, we have created a Gzip-compressed Tar archive of the whole my_directory folder and placed it in the /home/temp directory. Tar and Gzip/Gunzip commands allow system administrators to create and unzip GZ and TGZ files.
Your files will be placed in a new folder in the same directory as the original GZ file. There are popular options, like The Unarchiver or Keka what are cryptoassets (paid on the macOS App Store but free on the developer’s site). Both apps support several other formats as well, including ZIP and RAR. Like ZIP, you can simply double-click on your GZ archive, and it should start extracting its content. You can do this from any Finder window on your Mac, and your extracted files will be available in a new folder in the same directory as the original GZ archive.
Using third-party tools
Though gzip is the most common compression utility, it’s not the only one. As you might imagine, using a different compression utility on a .tar file will result in a different double extension. Some common examples include .tar.bz2 (bzip2), .tar.br (Brotli), and .tar.zst (zstd), among many others. Where most operating systems make it easy to extract and create .zip files, the same can’t really be said for .tar files — at least not in ways that are easy to notice. If you’ve seen the tar.gz or .tgz file types before, know that they are TAR files (tarballs) that were compressed with gzip.
Frequently you will need to extract a specific file or folder from a TGZ file archive which is possible using the Tar command. We have our new_archive.tar.gz file and need to extract a file named myfile from it. In the example below, use the following command to see the decompressed file. We are keeping the original files using the -k flag and can see the percentage reduction and the names of the files processed as the command runs by using the -v option.
- As you might imagine, using a different compression utility on a .tar file will result in a different double extension.
- You do this by providing a number as an option, from -1 through top -9.
- You can do this from any Finder window on your Mac, and your extracted files will be available in a new folder in the same directory as the original GZ archive.
- Gzip is primarily used on Unix operating systems for file compression.
- It makes it possible to reduce the overall file size so that you can upload it online or transfer it on removable storage devices with a limited storage capacity.
Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space. 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. You can open most .tar.gz files using the tar command built in to Linux, macOS, and Windows 10. If you’re not comfortable with the terminal or command line, third-party tools such as 7-Zip offer a more user-friendly alternative. It’s easy to get confused when navigating between .tar, .tar.gz, and .gz – not to mention zipping and unzipping them.
You can choose to unzip the whole archive or extract only the selected files or directories. Below we will learn how to unzip TAR.GZ files from the command line using different flags. As we discussed, you can compress an individual file by creating a new version of it with the GZ file extension while keeping the same file permissions and ownership. By default, the original file will be removed, so you will need to unzip the GZ file to continue using it.
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Again, the above command extracts to the current working directory by default. You can use the -C option to extract to a different directory (in this case, /home/user/files). A “.tar” file is a collection of files compressed into how to buy omi coin a single file or archive. Short for “Tape ARchive,” the name “TAR” is a throwback to when files were stored on magnetic tape drives.
What is a TAR.GZ File?
Simply add a space-separated list of the files you want to extract. This command extracts (-x) the file (-f) specified (in this case, filename.tar.gz) to the current directory. Note that this command also works with other common compression formats such as .tar.bz2. 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.
Now that we know what gz files are, let’s look into ways of unzipping or opening them. Since after all, it’s only after decompression that the files are of any use or not. Also since we are looking at gz files which are under the GNU umbrella, opening these files on Linux is really easy to do and with a lot of options to choose from. That said, even if you are on another system, you will still be able to open these files, just the methods will be different. Without using any external software, you can easily extract gz files in Linux using these commands.
Below we will compress three files from the current working directory using Gzip compression. Tar supports multiple compression methods, the most common of them are the Gzip/Gunzip and Bzip2/Bunzip2 compression utilities. Using Tar together with Gzip for file compression has become the best file archiving solution for Linux.
Please note that you need to specify the full path to the file or directory you would like to extract. Before creating a Tar archive compressed by Gzip, we need to understand what files we need to include and how we will group them together. Then, we can specify the files manually or create an archive of a whole directory and its subdirectories if there are any. Unlike using Gzip to compress individual files, creating a Tar archive compressed by Gzip will not lead to the removal of the files we include in it. The name of the GZ file you’re attempting to extract should be replaced by “filename.” The file’s integrity will be questioned by this command.
The Burrows-Wheeler transform algorithm is used in the file compression format BZIP2. The bzip2 utility offers a high compression ratio and is particularly powerful on text files. Large files or archives frequently need to be compressed using XZ files.
Where commands have little (if any) room for typos or omissions, many common errors are the result of small mistakes, misspellings, or incorrect formats. Thankfully, unless you’re somehow missing your tar or gzip utility, most common errors are very easy to fix. If the command line isn’t your thing, there are plenty of user-friendly tools available to unzip tar.gz files. You can use the zcat command in Linux to view the contents of a compressed file without unzipping it.
You can open GZ files without using any third-party tools on your Mac. Again, you can either use the Terminal to extract files from a GZ archive or the built-in english law and cryptoassets macOS tool to decompress your files. Alternatively, you can use 7zip’s context menu tools on Windows to unzip a .GZ files. Be sure to select this option during installation, and then you’ll be a right-click away from opening GZ files with 7zip. Compared to using the command line, using GUI tools can be more user-friendly and call fewer commands.
The name of the GZ file you’re attempting to extract should be replaced by “filename.” Make sure you are in the appropriate directory if the file doesn’t exist. To compress (or zip) a file, all you need to do is pass the name of the file to the gzip command. We’ll check the original size of the file, compress it, and then check the size of the compressed file.
