Archives: tar and gzip

A backup you have never restored is not a backup. In this lesson you pack a directory into an archive, confirm it is compressed, and restore it elsewhere, comparing it to the original byte for byte. The sandbox already has a ~/project directory.

Steps

1. Pack

Gather the directory into one compressed archive. The czf flags: create (c), gzip (z), to a file (f). -C ~ tells tar to step into the home directory so the paths inside the archive stay short.

tar czf ~/project.tar.gz -C ~ project
tar tzf ~/project.tar.gz       # list the contents

2. Check the compression

gzip -t checks that the archive is valid gzip, and gzip -l shows the compression ratio.

gzip