# Create tar named archive.tar containing directory
tar cf archive.tar directory
# Extract the contents from archive.tar
tar xf archive.tar
# Create a gzip compressed tar file name archive.tar.gz
tar czf archive.tar.gz directory
# Extract a gzip compressed tar file
tar xzf archive.tar.gz
# Create a tar file with bzip2 compression
tar cjf archive.tar.bz2 directory
# Extract a bzip2 compressed tar file
tar xjf archive.tar.bz2
# List content of tar file
tar -tvf archive.tar