Unzip GZ File: How to Open GZ Files on Windows & Linux CMD Guide

how to decompress gz file

Tar and Gzip utilities are often used together to create TAR.GZ file archives while achieving a high level of compression. You can unzip GZ files in Linux by adding the -d flag to the Gzip/Gunzip command. The GZ file will be removed by default after we uncompressed it unless we use the -k flag. Below we will unzip the GZ files we compressed in the same directory. Tar and Gzip are popular Linux system utilities for file compression and archiving.

Unzip a GZ File on Windows Using the Terminal or Command Prompt

how to decompress gz file

You can transfer data more effectively and save disk space by utilizing these compression techniques. Based on the type of data you want to compress and your particular use case, it’s crucial to select the best how to build cryptocurrency exchange compression technique. This archives the directory tree structure and all files within the directory tree. In Linux, while installing packages manually, you will get the files in compressed form and often they will have the .gz extension.

Using Mac Archive Utility

Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights, and you should be fine. With a file as small as this, we didn’t see any significant difference in speed of execution, but there was a small difference in compression. For more information and to schedule a live demo, contact a hosting expert from Kinsta today. Notice that the “-z” is missing from what should be sudo tar -xz on the far right. Sure, you can name them one by one as I explained earlier, but I’m talking about hundreds of files here. Explore our fully managed our hosting solutions to get started today.

Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive. This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks. If you notice, while extracting the files, the gzip command removed the original compressed archive, which is not the desired way of extracting files. Learn to extract .gz files in the Ubuntu command line with gzip and unzip commands. The tar command is used to create and unzip the TGZ files on a Linux system.

Now You Know All About File Compression Tools in Linux

You can create your own compressed .tar files using compression utilities such as gzip. Gzip is one of the most popular and available options, especially since it comes built in to most Linux distributions and macOS. Where .zip files consist of many individually compressed files, .tar files are compressed as a single package, leaving its files uncompressed. In other words, .zip files are a collection of compressed files, while .tar files are a compressed collection of files. To summarize, you can easily extract files from archives with the .gz file extension by turning to archiving tools that support this format. 7-Zip is an awesome choice for Windows and Linux users since it’s completely free for both personal and commercial purposes.

  1. Unlike Windows’ convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for unzipping .zip files, you need to use the tar utility through the command line.
  2. However, having an archive compressed makes it more difficult to extract individual files without uncompressing the whole tarball first.
  3. This error occurs if you try to decompress a file without specifying a decompression utility, specifically -z for gzip.
  4. There’s a command called tar that you can use within the Windows Terminal or Command Prompt to extract your GZ archive contents.

Three new GZ files will be created in the directory due to the command day trading cryptocurrency above. The -k flag might be unavailable in some cases, so we will need to use the -c option to keep the original file. The Linux man pages are a collection of documentation pages that describe the various commands and utilities that are offered on Linux systems. Each page offers thorough details about a specific command or utility, such as its syntax, options, and usage examples.

Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option. If you have got a .zip file instead, use the unzip command to extract it. If you’d rather unzip a GZ file on your Windows using apps, there are lots of free alternatives. 7-Zip is a pretty good choice for this task, as it’s easy, free, and open-source. There’s a command called tar that you can use within the Windows Terminal or Command Prompt to extract your GZ archive contents.

Therefore, when paired with Tar, the compressed archive will be saved as a TAR.GZ or TGZ file. A tarball or tarfile is name of group of files that are bundled together. It is often used with a compression utility such as Gzip or Bzip2 to space disk space.

How to Add a User to Sudoers File in CentOS: Step-by-Step Guide

The name of the gz file you want to decompress should be replaced with the name of filename. Gzip instructs it to decompress the file rather how to choose bitcoin wallet than compress it using the -d option. The original file, a spreadsheet called “calc-sheet.ods” is 11 KB,  and the compressed file—also known as an archive file—is 9.3 KB.

You can also add the verbose output option (-v) to provide detailed listings, including dates, securities/permissions, and more. You can also use –wildcards to extract all files with a certain extension or name. The FileInfo.com team has independently researched the Gnu Zipped Archive file format and Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android apps listed on this page. Our goal is 100% accuracy and we only publish information about file types that we have verified. Worry not, in this article, we deep dive into the details of gz file and help you overcome your doubts about it.

Unfortunately, Tar itself does not compress files, so the size of a Tar archive equals the amount of disk space the files it contains occupy. Tar does not change file system attributes such as permissions or ownership of the files included in a tarball; it saves them in an archive. Even after an archive has been created, you can still add or remove files from it or manipulate the filenames unless the archive has been compressed. The tar command is used to manage TAR and TAR.GZ files on a Linux system, including their creation, modification, and extracting files from them. By mastering this skill, you can easily save disk space and time while working with compressed files. Moreover, you can improve your overall Linux skills and become more efficient in your work.

Don’t hesitate to practice these techniques and explore other Linux commands to enhance your knowledge further. The name of the GZ file you’re attempting to extract should be replaced by “filename.” You can see the file type in this way. This time, we can see that gzip has deleted the archive file after extracting the original file. To retain the archive file, we need to use the -k (keep) option again, as well as the -d (decompress) option. Of course, that’s not to say .tar files are some kind of “lesser” format than .zip. Rather, they both accomplish the same task (file compression) in the same way.

GZ files often store .TAR archives that contain multiple files, such as video, image, audio, and backup files. In conclusion, learning how to unzip gz files in Linux is an essential skill for anyone working with this operating system. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced user, this guide has provided you with step-by-step instructions to extract gz files using both command line and GUI tools.

It typically contains a single compressed file but may also store multiple compressed files. Gzip is primarily used on Unix operating systems for file compression. On the other hand, Zip compresses each file before adding them to an archive, which results in a bigger archive file size. However, having an archive compressed makes it more difficult to extract individual files without uncompressing the whole tarball first. Gzip is the most popular file compression utility for Linux systems which can be used alone to compress individual files. The Gzip and Gunzip commands compress a file, resulting in the new compressed version of it being created while the original file is removed by default.

In addition, the author has also worked with other compression methods such as ZIP, TAR, XZ, and BZIP2 files. Their experience has been gained through hands-on practice, as well as through extensive research on the topic. As we see later, different compression utilities may require different methods for extracting and unzipping files. Though we mostly focus on .tar.gz files, check out the end of the article for some quick tips on extracting .tar files in other formats. A GZ file is an archive file compressed by the standard GNU zip (gzip) compression algorithm.

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