Archiving and Compression Flashcards

Which tar option extracts files to a specific directory instead of the current one?

Answer: -C /path/to/dir

The -C option changes the working directory before performing any operations, so files are extracted there.

What does the `gzip -k` flag do?

Answer: Keep the original file after compression

The -k (keep) flag tells gzip to retain the original file instead of replacing it with the compressed version.

Which command lists the contents of a .tar.bz2 file without extracting it?

Answer: tar -tjf archive.tar.bz2

The -t flag lists contents, -j specifies bzip2, and -f specifies the filename — no extraction occurs.

What compression format does the `xz` command produce by default?

Answer: .xz using LZMA2

The xz utility uses the LZMA2 algorithm and produces files with the .xz extension by default.

Which tar option appends files to an existing uncompressed tar archive?

Answer: -r

The -r (append) option adds files to the end of an existing archive without recreating it.

What is the purpose of `tar --exclude='*.log'` when creating an archive?

Answer: Skip all files matching the pattern *.log

The --exclude option tells tar to skip any files matching the given pattern during archive creation.

Which command decompresses a .xz file while keeping the original compressed file?

Answer: xz -dk file.xz

The -d decompresses and -k keeps the original, so both the compressed and decompressed files remain.