tar

Use

tar -tf archive.tar

What It Does

tar lists or extracts tar archives.

Tar archives group paths into one file. Tar by itself is not compression, though tar archives are often compressed afterward.

Practice

List with -t before extracting with -x.

Watch Out

Archives can contain paths. Extract into a scratch directory first.

Recovery

• List before extracting: tar -tf archive.tar.
• Extract into a scratch directory: mkdir -p extract && tar -xf archive.tar -C extract.
• If tar says the file is not a tar archive, run file archive.tar before guessing again.

Docs Pointers

• Run man tar.
• Read File Compression And Archives.
• Read the GNU tar manual on operations.