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.