How do I un-tar something?

[Flyck]

In article <788 at unicorn.WWU.EDU> n8743196 at unicorn.WWU.EDU (jeff wandling) writes:
>I saw a poster on this and tried it but I still haven't been sucessful.
>I'd like to un-tar a file. Just how do I do it? 

Try tar -xvf <file.name.tar>

The -x tells tar extract information from the tar file, the -v will echo
the exctractions to the screen so you know it's working, and the -f signals
that the <file.name.tar> is where to extract from.  Make sure you uncompress
it first if neccessary (a compressed file has a .Z on the end).  Note that
the -v switch is optional.  I like it becuase it shows that it's doing 
something.  If the file is compressed you can also untar it with out 
uncompressing by using

zcat <file.name.tar.Z> | tar -xvf -

This saves disk space as you don't have the uncompressed tar file laying
around.

-mark