How To Extract a Tar Files To a Different Directory on a Linux/Unix-like Systems

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I want to extract tar file to specific directory called /tmp/data. How can I extract a tar archive to a different directory using tar command on a Linux or Unix-like systems?

You do not need to change the directory using the cd command and extract files. This page explains how to extract a tar archive to different directory on a Linux/Unix system using the tar command.
How to Extract Tar Files to Specific or Different Directory in Linux
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Syntax

Untarring a file can be done using the following syntax. Typical Unix tar syntax:
tar -xf file.name.tar -C /path/to/directory
GNU/tar Linux syntax:
tar xf file.tar -C /path/to/directory
OR
tar xf file.tar --directory /path/to/directory
Extract .tar.gz archive:
tar -zxf file.tar --directory /path/to/directory
Extract .tar.bz2/.tar.zx archive:
tar -jxf file.tar --directory /path/to/directory
Where,

  • x : Extract files
  • f : Tar archive name
  • --directory : Set directory name to extract files
  • -C : Set dir name to extract files
  • -j : Work on .tar.gz file format
  • -z : Work on .tar.bz2 file format
  • -v : Verbose output i.e. show progress on screen

Example: Extract files to another directory

In this example, I’m extracting $HOME/etc.backup.tar file to a directory called /tmp/data. First, you have to create the directory manually, enter:

mkdir /tmp/data

To extract a tar archive $HOME/etc.backup.tar into a /tmp/data, enter:

tar -xf $HOME/etc.backup.tar -C /tmp/data

To see a progress pass the -v option:

tar -xvf $HOME/etc.backup.tar -C /tmp/data

Sample outputs:

Gif 01: tar Command Extract Archive To Different Directory Command
Gif 01: tar Command Extract Archive To Different Directory Command

Extract only specific files from a tar archive

You can extract specific files too:

## extract only file1, file2, file3
## and dir1 to /tmp/data/ 
tar -xvf $HOME/etc.backup.tar file1 file2 file3 dir1 -C /tmp/data

Extract .tar.gz/.tgz archive to specific folder

To extract a foo.tar.gz (.tgz extension file) tarball to /tmp/bar, enter:

mkdir /tmp/foo
tar -zxvf foo.tar.gz -C /tmp/foo

Extract .tar.bz2/.tbz2/.tb2/.tar.xz archive to specific directory

To extract a foo.tar.bz2 (.tbz, .tbz2 & .tb2 extension file) tarball to /tmp/bar, enter:

mkdir /tmp/bar
tar -jxvf bar.tar.bz2  -C /tmp/bar

Sample outputs:

etc/adduser.conf
etc/apg.conf
etc/appstream.conf
etc/brltty.conf
etc/ca-certificates.conf
etc/debconf.conf
etc/deluser.conf
etc/fuse.conf
etc/fwupd.conf
etc/gai.conf
etc/hdparm.conf
etc/host.conf
etc/kernel-img.conf
etc/kerneloops.conf
etc/ld.so.conf
etc/libao.conf
etc/libaudit.conf
etc/logrotate.conf
etc/ltrace.conf
etc/mke2fs.conf
etc/mtools.conf
etc/nsswitch.conf
etc/pam.conf
etc/pnm2ppa.conf
etc/popularity-contest.conf
etc/resolv.conf
etc/rsyslog.conf
etc/sensors3.conf
etc/sysctl.conf
etc/ucf.conf
etc/updatedb.conf
etc/usb_modeswitch.conf

See tar command man page for more information.

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Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

6 comment

  3. on the specific files example. it didn’t work on my environment unless i moved the -C flag before the explicit file names
    e.g.

    tar -xvf $HOME/etc.backup.tar -C /tmp/data file1 file2 file3 dir1

  4. I’m very curious to know if there is a directory that is common place to install tar in, or no one follows a directory structure?

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