you'll get used to it, just look for the option explanations:
Code:
FUNCTION LETTERS
One of the following options must be used:
-A, --catenate, --concatenate
append tar files to an archive
-c, --create
create a new archive
-d, --diff, --compare
find differences between archive and file system
--delete
delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)
-r, --append
append files to the end of an archive
-t, --list
list the contents of an archive
-u, --update
only append files that are newer than copy in
archive
-x, --extract, --get
extract files from an archive
and later:
Code:
-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F
use archive file or device F (default "-", meaning
stdin/stdout)
-j, --bzip2
filter archive through bzip2, use to decompress
.bz2 files
-z, --gzip, --ungzip
filter the archive through gzip
so to extract a .tar archive:
cd /where/you/want/it/
tar -xf /path/to/filename
extracting .bz2:
tar -xjf /path/to/filename
extracting .tar.gz:
tar -xzf /path/to/filename
