Reminder: tar Can Infer the Compression Format

# Create: select the compressor from the archive suffix
tar -caf archive.tar.gz PATH

# Extract into the current directory: detect compression automatically
tar -xf archive.tar.gz

# Extract into DIR: detect compression automatically
tar -xf archive.tar.gz -C DIR

• -a: during creation, select the compressor from the archive suffix
• -c: create
• -x: extract
• -f: use the following archive filename
• -C DIR: change to DIR before operating
• -v: list files as they are processed
• -z: explicitly use gzip (not deprecated)

Automatic detection may not work when reading an archive from a pipe because tar cannot rewind the input. Specify the compression format explicitly:

curl -fsSL URL | tar -xzf -

The final - is the archive filename supplied to -f; it means standard input.

tar added automatic recognition in 1.15 (2004-12-20), -a for creation in 1.20 (2008-04-14), and suffix fallback when reading in 1.21 (2008-12-27).

References

• GNU tar manual — Using Less Space through Compression