To get the files out of a tarball, you can use the following commands:
tar xvf something.tar
If the tarball has also been gzipped (compressed), you can use the following command:
tar xvfz something.tar.gz
If you only want certain directories from the tarball, do this:
tar xvzf something.tar.gz */dir.you.want/*
If you have a .tar.bz2 file, then you need bzip2 installed (/usr/ports/archivers/bzip2), and you issue this command:
tar yxf something.tar.bz2
tar
To tar up *.db in the current directory into a tarball called blah.tar.gz, issue this command:
tar cfz blah.tar.gz *.db
The z option compresses.
listing the contents
To see a list of the files within a tarball, issue the following command:
tar -tzf blah.tar.gz
The -t provides a list. the -z indicates that the tarball is compressed. The -f identifies the tarball.
Here’s an example:
# tar -tzf files.dwhs.tgz
etc/
etc/protocols
etc/aliases
etc/services
etc/hosts