Zip Or Compress Directory On Linux

The following tar command will:

• -c: create a new archive
• -z: gzip
• -f: use archive file
• -v: verbose - list all files archived (optional)

tar -czvf [FILENAME].tar.gz [DIRECTORY]

The following extra parameters are useful:

• -p: preserve permission
• --exclude: exclude files

Compress directory with exclude file extension.

tar -czvf [FILENAME].tar.gz [DIRECTORY] --exclude "*.pyc"

Compress directory with exclude sub directory.

tar -czvf [FILENAME].tar.gz [DIRECTORY] --exclude "tmp"

Compress directory with multiple excludes.

tar -czvf [FILENAME].tar.gz [DIRECTORY] --exclude "*.pyc" --exclude "tmp"

Extract .tar.gz.

tar -zxf [FILENAME].tar.gz