How to unzip .tgz file using the terminal?

To extract a .tgz file with tar you need to use,

tar -xvzf /path/to/yourfile.tgz

where,

  • x for extract
  • v for verbose
  • z for gnuzip
  • f for file, should come at last just before file name.

You can use the following command in a terminal to unzip the file in your case,

tar -xvzf /media/towhid/Amra/Software/Developing\ Soft/mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.3.tgz

Extract a .tgz file in different directory:

One can use -C option to extract archive contents to a different directory as following,

tar -xvzf /path/to/yourfile.tgz -C /path/where/to/extract/

Let's end the decades of hardly-memorable one-letter tar options. Use this to extract your .tgz file:

tar --extract --file /path/to/file.tgz

The explanation of used options was purposedly left out.


Open the terminal and use the cd command to change directories to the directory where the mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.3.tgz file is located and the run the following command:

tar xzf mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.3.tgz   

The above command will extract the contents of the mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.6.3.tgz archive while preserving the archive's hierarchical tree directory structure.

A similar command extracts .tar.xz files. Open the terminal and the run the following command:

tar -xf /path/to/your/file.tar.xz

Explanation:

  • -x extract files from an archive
  • -f use archive file