What are the different arguments passed to tar command?
Just type man tar
in the terminal for the tar
command manual.
You can also view it online at http://man.cx/tar or at http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/tar1.html (Thanks to @Rinzwind)
The meaning of -xvzf is
-x --extract = extract files from an archive
-v, --verbose = verbosely list files processed
-z, --gzip = gzipped files eg. for tar.gz packages
-f, --file ARCHIVE = use archive file or device ARCHIVE
From the tar
man page -
-x, --extract, --get
extract files from an archive
-v, --verbose
verbosely list files processed
-z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
filter the archive through gzip
-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F
use archive file or device F (default "-", meaning stdin/stdout)
Type man tar
in a Terminal to access the man page for tar.
As mentioned by previous answers the man page will give you a detailed answer to your question.
Additionally, you can access command information through the help
argument in a slightly more concise format than the man page gives. By typing tar --help
you can lookup the x, v, z, and f arguments.
If you are at a linux terminal you can type 'man tar' for the manual page for tar which lists all the command line switches for tar and what they do. You can also google man tar for the same page. (the man pages are great for learning about commands on linux)
-xvzf means :-
x extract - extract the files from the archive
v verbose - list all files as they are processed
z uncompress - in this case, or compress if creating a tar
f use a file (The file you are uncompressing)
....but there are lots more switches for tar. Take a look.