How do I unpack a Tar file?

Unzip tar files the same way you would unzip a regular zipped file:

tar –xvzf name-of-file.tar.gz

The basic command is tar, followed by four options:

  • x – instructs tar to extract the files from the zipped file
  • v – means verbose, or to list out the files it’s extracting
  • z – instructs tar to decompress the files – without this, you’d have a folder full of compressed files
  • f – tells tar the filename you want it to work on