tar is the standard UNIX/Linux archiving application tool. In its early stage it used to be a Tape Archiving Program which gradually is developed into General Purpose archiving package which is capable of handling archive files of every kind. tar accepts a lot of archiving filter with options.

tar options

1. -A : Append tar files to existing archives.
2. -c : Create a new archive file.
3. -d : Compare archive with Specified filesystem.
4. -j : bzip the archive
5. -r : append files to existing archives.
6. -t : list contents of existing archives.
7. -u : Update archive
8. -x : Extract file from existing archive.
9. -z : gzip the archive
10. –delete : Delete files from existing archive.

tar Examples

Create a tar archive file.

# tar -zcvf name_of_tar.tar.gz /path/to/folder

Decompress an tar archive file.

# tar -zxvf Name_of_tar_file.tar.gz

Source: 5 Best Command Line Archive Tools for Linux – Part 1