Tar backup basic usages

Task: List the contents of a tar file

Use the following command:

$ tar -tvf file.tar

Task: List the contents of a tar.gz file

Use the following command:

$ tar -ztvf file.tar.gz

Task: List the contents of a tar.bz2 file

Use the following command:

$ tar -jtvf file.tar.bz2

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COMPRESS ( p = preserve permissions) 

tar -zcpvf prog-1-jan-2005.tar.gz /home/alex/stufftobackup

DECOMPRESS ( p = preserve permissions) 

tar -zxpvf prog-1-jan-2018.tar.gz