Tar-Zip-Rar

Linux tar

"tar" stands for tape archive.

The tar command can compress or decompress files and folders. The compressed file is referred to as a tarball.

gzip compression

To compress a file or folder with gz compression:

tar -czvf tarball_name.gz file_names or folder_name
- c - create
- z - use gzip compresion
- v - verbose ouput
- f - file tarball_name

To extract the tarball:

tar -xzvf tarball_name.gz
- x - extract

xz compression

To compress a file or folder with xz compression:

tar -cJvf tarball_name.xz files or folder_name
- J - use xz compression

To extract this tarball:

tar -xJvf tarball_name.xz

When decompressing a tarball, tar is intelligent enough to determine how the files were compressed. So, the following will decompress either type of tarball:

tar -xvf tarball_name.??

gzip vs xz compression

xz compression will produce smaller files than gzip, but it takes more time to compress and decompress the files.

rar

Rar is often used to split a large file (video) into smaller files.

rar's compression algorithm is not free [2].
rar's decompression algorithm is free [3].

unrar is usually not installed by default. To install it on Debian:

sudo apt install unrar

To unrar and merge the files:

unrar e file.rar
- e - extract

File Compression/Decompression

Linux tar

gzip compression

xz compression

gzip vs xz compression

zip

rar

References: