what does -zxvf mean in tar -zxvf <filename>?

linux tar
Shikhar picture Shikhar · Feb 21, 2014 · Viewed 97.9k times · Source

I have seen on many websites commands like this what does the "-zxvf" or the similar commands stand for?

tar -zxvf <filename>
 tar xvf <filename>

Answer

Potatoswatter picture Potatoswatter · Feb 21, 2014
  • z means (un)z̲ip.
  • x means ex̲tract files from the archive.
  • v means print the filenames v̲erbosely.
  • f means the following argument is a f̱ilename.

For more details, see tar's man page.

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