Compression 

bzip 

bzip2 

Package: bzip2

Files with the “.bz2” extension are compressed.

Usage	Explanation
-v	verbosely display output

cpio 

Package: cpio

cpio means copy input/output. This format is used for RPMs.

Usage	Explanation
-id	extract files AND directories

Example	Explanation
rpm2cpio httpd.rpm \| cpio -id	extract files and directories from the Apache RPM

dtrx 

Do the right extract (dtrx) is a universal compression utility for all formats. By default it runs in an interactive mode.

Usage	Explanation
-m	extract metadata from ‘.rpms’, ‘.deb’, or ‘.gem’ packages

gzip 

Package: gzip

Files with the “.gz” extension use gzip compression

Usage	Explanation
-d	decompress a file
-r	recursively compress files
-v	verbosely display output

pigz 

pigz provides automatic multi-threaded compression and decompression for gzip. See gzip for possible arguments.

rar 

Usage	Explanation
-v	verbosely display output

unrar 

star 

This archive tool provides the ability to retain special ACL permissions.

star 

Package: star

star provides extra capabilities to tar that allow for properly storing various types of attributes.

Usage	Explanation
-x	extract
-v	verbosely
-f=	provide the full file path to the ‘.star’ archive
-xattr	preserve extended attributes such as SELinux permissions

tar 

Package: tar

Files with the “.tar” extension are archived (not compressed).

Usage	Explanation
-x	extracts a tar file
-k	do not delete existing files
-c	create a tar file
-f	use archive file
-t	lists files inside a tar file
-T	specify a file of directory/file names to tar
-v	verbosely display output
-z	compresses the archive using gzip to make a .tar.gz file
-J	uses xz compression
-C	specify the directory to extract to
–selinux	keep SELinux permissions
–acls	keep ACLs
–xattrs	keep extended attributes

Example	Explanation
-zcvf /home /root/home_backup.tar.gz	create a backup of the home directory

xz 

Package: xz

Best for compressing text files (saves the most space).

Usage	Explanation
-z, –compress	compress files
-d, –decompress	decompress files
–threads 0	use the number of hyperthreads available from the CPU for faster processing
-0	fast compression, takes less time
-9	high compression, takes longer

zip 

unzip 

Usage	Explanation
-d <DEST_DIR>	specify a destination directory to extract to
-j	decompress files to the current working directory
-l	list contents of the archive

Example	Explanation
-j <ZIP_FILE> <PATH_TO_COMPRESSED_FILE>	decompress a specific file and save it to the current working directory

jar 

Package: java-openjdk

Jar files are Java applications that are compressed using zip.

Usage	Explanation
cf	create a Jar archive
xf	extract a Jar archive

zip 

Package: zip

Usage	Explanation
-v	verbosely display output
-r	recursively; for directories

Example	Explanation
-r root_archive.zip /root/	create a zip archive of the root user home directory