How to use tar to archive and extract files

This article will explain how to use the tar command in Linux to create, list, and extract files.

1. Creating a .tar file

To tar the contents of a single folder:
tar -cvf filename.tar /folder1
To tar the contents of a multiple folders:
tar -cvf filename.tar /folder1 /folder2 /folder3
To tar multiple files
tar -cvf filename.tar file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

2. Listing the contents of a .tar file (without extracting)

tar -tvf filename.tar

3. Extract the contents of a .tar file

tar -xvf filename.tar

4. Uncompressing a .tgz file

tar -xzvf foo.tgz