# tar > Archiving utility. > Often combined with a compression method, such as gzip or bzip. > More information: . - Create an archive from files: `tar cf {{target.tar}} {{file1 file2 file3}}` - Create a gzipped archive: `tar czf {{target.tar.gz}} {{file1 file2 file3}}` - Extract a (compressed) archive into the current directory: `tar xf {{source.tar[.gz|.bz2|.xz]}}` - Extract an archive into a target directory: `tar xf {{source.tar}} -C {{directory}}` - Create a compressed archive, using archive suffix to determine the compression program: `tar caf {{target.tar.xz}} {{file1 file2 file3}}` - List the contents of a tar file: `tar tvf {{source.tar}}` - Extract files matching a pattern: `tar xf {{source.tar}} --wildcards {{"*.html"}}`