# tar > Archiving utility. > Often combined with a compression method, such as gzip or bzip2. > More information: . - [c]reate an archive and write it to a [f]ile: `tar cf {{path/to/target.tar}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}` - [c]reate a g[z]ipped archive and write it to a [f]ile: `tar czf {{path/to/target.tar.gz}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}` - [c]reate a g[z]ipped archive from a directory using relative paths: `tar czf {{path/to/target.tar.gz}} --directory={{path/to/directory}} .` - E[x]tract a (compressed) archive [f]ile into the current directory [v]erbosely: `tar xvf {{path/to/source.tar[.gz|.bz2|.xz]}}` - E[x]tract a (compressed) archive [f]ile into the target directory: `tar xf {{path/to/source.tar[.gz|.bz2|.xz]}} --directory={{path/to/directory}}` - [c]reate a compressed archive and write it to a [f]ile, using the file extension to [a]utomatically determine the compression program: `tar caf {{path/to/target.tar.xz}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}` - Lis[t] the contents of a tar [f]ile [v]erbosely: `tar tvf {{path/to/source.tar}}` - E[x]tract files matching a pattern from an archive [f]ile: `tar xf {{path/to/source.tar}} --wildcards "{{*.html}}"`