Learn how to use gzip on a directory and subdirectories. Our Server Management Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to use gzip on a directory and subdirectories

Gzip is a popular file compression utility. It helps reduce the size of files and directories by compressing them into a single `.gz` file.

Our experts would like to point out that gzip works for individual files, not directories. To compress entire directories, our experts recommend tar or combining the two.

How to compress a folder with gzip

To compress a directory and its subdirectories, we can combine the tar and gzip commands as seen here:

Tar -z

This allows us to create compressed archives easily.

Now, let’s take a look at the syntax of this command:

tar -zcvf [result-filename.tar.gz] [path-of-directory-to-compress]

Where:

• -z: It compresses the file or directory with gzip.
• -c: It creates a new archive.
• -v: It displays progress while creating the archive.
• -f: It specifies the desired filename or directory to compress.

For example, if we want to compress a folder called “customerdetails”, we can run this command:

tar -zcvf customerdetails_compressed.tar.gz customerdetails


When we run this command with the `-v` option, we will be able to see a list of filenames as they are added to the archive. This gives us a closer look at the compression progress.

How to Extract Compressed Files

Once we compress our directory with gzip, we can extract the contents. This is done with this command:

tar -xvzf [our-tar-file.tar.gz]

Where:

• -z: It decompresses the file or directory with gzip.
• -x: It extracts files from the archive. It also extracts specific files if mentioned.
• -v: It displays progress while extracting.
• -f: It specifies the input `.tar.gz` file.

How to extract content to a custom directory

Furthermore, we can extract the contents to a custom directory by using the `-C` or `–directory` option in our extraction command.

For example:

tar -xvzf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz -C /target/directory

Here, the contents will be extracted to `/target/directory`.

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Conclusion

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to use gzip on a directory and subdirectories.