Uncompressing Files
Problem
You need to uncompress one or more files ending in extensions like tar, tar.gz, gz, tgz, Z
, or zip
.
Solution
Figure out what you are dealing with and use the right tool. Table 8-3 maps common extensions to programs capable of handling them.
Table 8-3. Common file extensions and compression utilities
File extension | Command |
---|---|
|
|
| GNU tar: else: |
| GNU tar: else: |
| GNU tar: else: |
|
|
You should also try the file command:
$ file what_is_this.* what_is_this.1: GNU tar archive what_is_this.2: gzip compressed data, from Unix $ gunzip what_is_this.2 gunzip: what_is_this.2: unknown suffix -- ignored $ mv what_is_this.2 what_is_this.2.gz $ gunzip what_is_this.2.gz $ file what_is_this.2 what_is_this.2: GNU tar archive
Discussion
If the file extension matches none of those listed in Table 8-3 and the file command doesn’t help, but you are sure it’s an archive of some kind, then you should do a web search for it.
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