A common way of packaging up files into a single combined file is to use the
tar command to create a tarball.
Oftentimes, the source code for a program is downloadable as a tarball file,
since it’s easier to distribute and receive.
The following command shows the basic syntax, where a folder (or folders) or a
bunch of files can be made into a tarball.
It is common to just put the files into a single folder and tar that folder.
$ tar [options] tarball.tar folder/files
The tar command is used to both package and unpackage tarballs.
Thus, the options used are important. Using the -z flag will zip the folder
(and thus compress its contents), and yield the .tgz extension.
The -v flag stands for verbose and prints as much information as possible
while using the command.
The -f flag specifies that the contents should be put into an archive file.
Finally, the -c flag specifies that the tarball will be created.
$ tar -zcvf tarball.tgz folder/
To unpack a tarball, use the -x flag (for extract) instead of the -c
(creation) flag.
$ tar -zxvf tarball.tgz
If the tarball extension was .tar instead of .tgz, then you wouldn’t need
to include the -z flag, since the file wasn’t compressed through
gzip during creation.