5 Best Command Line Archive Tools for Linux – Part 1
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By Avishek Kumar
In our day-to-day life we come across, archived files on the platforms of all kind be it Windows, Mac or Linux. There are several Application program available for all of the platforms to create archive files as well as uncompress them. When it comes to work on Linux Platform, we need to deal with archived files very frequently.
Here in this article we will be discussing archive tools available on standard Linux Distribution, their features, Examples, etc. The article divided into two parts, each part contains five command line archive tools (i.e. total of 10 Best Command Line Archive Tools).
To expand on brianL's comment,. he means that tar automatically detects the type of compression and uses the correct switches to uncompress. So if it detects gzip, it will automatically append -z to the parameters.
Also, tar is not "the standard UNIX/Linux archiving application tool."
It was made around 1999. CPIO was written in 1977, and is still around, and in fact, you have to use cpio to package up your intramfs file for booting linux. So, IMO, no tar is not the standard.
So at best, this article is listing a random set of well known archival and concatenation programs. Perhaps 'favorite' would do better in the title for honesty, since there is no performance comparisons.
We usually get this sort of article linked to in the LQ/News forum: 5 Best/6 Best/10 Best of Whatever. More often than not, they're just an exercise in copy'n'paste.
Not everyone has been made aware of tools that can be used to enhance their experience. 'tar' is still useful to people who do use it. But if someone is not aware of available commands then articles of this type can be useful. Until admin tells me otherwise, I will continue to provide information or links to information for members who may not have the expertize that senior members may have.
We need to be helpful to our newer members or members who wish to enhance their experience(s).
Personally, I am starting to see how some new members are leery thus limiting their interaction.
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