How do I Compress a Whole Linux or UNIX Directory?

Originally by VIVEK GITE on FEBRUARY 11, 2006 ·

Modified by Droidzone

Q. How can I compress a whole directory under Linux / UNIX using a shell prompt?

A. It is very easy to compress a Whole Linux/UNIX directory. It is useful to backup files, email all files, or even to send software you have created to friends. Technically, it is called as a compressed archive. GNU tar command is best for this work. It can be use on remote Linux or UNIX server. It does two things for you:
=> Create the archive
=> Compress the archive

You need to use tar command as follows (syntax of tar command):
tar -zcvf archive-name.tar.gz directory-name
Where,

  • -z: Compress archive using gzip program: .tar.gz
  • -j: Compress using bzip2: .tar.bz2
  • -c: Create archive
  • -v: Verbose i.e display progress while creating archive
  • -f: Archive File name

For example, you have directory called /home/jerry/prog and you would like to compress this directory then you can type tar command as follows:

$ tar -zcvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz /home/jerry/prog[/code]


Above command will create an archive file called prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz in current directory. If you wish to restore your archive then you need to use following command (it will extract all files in current directory):


$ tar -zxvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz[/code]


Where,


    

  • -x: Extract files
    • 



If you wish to extract files in particular directory, for example in /tmp then you need to use following command:


$ tar -zxvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz -C /tmp

$ cd /tmp

$ ls -[/code]


 


Qn:


I have a directory I need to backup using "tar" and/or "zip".  I need

to exclude a directory from the archive. Backup script running on

Unix.


Directory to archive: /home/

Directory to exclude: /home/cpanel/


I need the solution for zip and tar.[/code]

Ans:


zip -r backup.zip /home -x "/home/cpanel/*"


tar -cf backup.tar /home --exclude "/home/cpanel" or[/code]


tar -cf backup.tar /home --exclude="/home/cpanel"[/code]

If you have a long list of directories to exclude, use:


tar -cf backup.tar /home --exclude={android,blackberry,animated_favicon1.gif,build,build.xml,db,error.jsp,favicon1.ico}[/code]

Or you can have the list of directories in an exclude text file:


--exclude-from=/PATH_TO/exclude.txt[/code]