How to Unzip a GZ File on Any Platform: 7 Easy Methods

• Daham Jayarathna
• 29 Sep, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 6 Mins Read

How to Unzip a GZ File on Any Platform: 7 Easy Methods

Using the first command, we have created a Gzip-compressed Tar archive of the whole my_directory folder and placed it in the /home/temp directory. Tar and Gzip/Gunzip commands allow system administrators to create and unzip GZ and TGZ files. Gzip/Gunzip and Tar are installed by default on most Linux distributions, so all you need is SSH access and basic knowledge of the Linux command line interface.

When should you use GZ files?

1. Both apps support several other formats as well, including ZIP and RAR.
2. Anyone with access to your file can use gzip to decompress it.
3. Having a password protected GZ file is crucial if you’re storing or sharing sensitive data.
4. GZ files are compressed files that are commonly used in Linux and Unix operating systems to compress and archive files, making them easier to store and transfer.

If you want to unzip the file to a specific directory, choose the “Extract to” option from the context menu. A file selection dialog will appear, allowing you to choose the desired destination directory. If you want to unzip the file to the current directory, simply select the “Extract” option from the context menu. The file will be extracted directly into the directory you’re currently viewing. However, gzip does have one drawback it can’t really compress multiple files at once, so we need to use gzip along with tar if we want to compress multiple files. Tar and Gzip utilities are often used together to create TAR.GZ file archives while achieving a high level of compression.

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The result is gzip has created an archive file for each text file in the directory structure. The first use of the ls command targets a specific file, the spreadsheet. The second use of ls looks for all files beginning with “calc-” but it only finds the compressed file. That’s because, by default, gzip creates the archive file and deletes the original file.

Be sure to select this option during installation, and then you’ll be a right-click away from opening GZ files with 7zip. But using WinZip, you can instead create ZIP files that share the same benefits as the GZ file format with better accessibility. So if you’re having trouble creating GZ files in WinZip, follow this detailed guide on how to create a ZIP file instead. The GZ file format is commonly used as a compression format for Linux and Unix operating systems.

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Another name for a tar archive is a tarball representing a file with the TAR file extension. You can think of a tarball as a container for multiple files that makes storing and moving them more convenient. A GZ file is an archive compressed using the gzip compression technology. Like other compressed files, this archive type helps you combine your files and reduce the size of your files by compressing them. As we have seen over the course of this article, xz files are nothing special. Most of the newer graphical distros like Ubuntu and Linux Mint come with built in tools to decompress files using a GUI.

A GZ file is a compressed file that uses the gzip compression format, which is commonly used in Linux and Unix operating systems. GZ files are often used to compress and archive files, similar to ZIP files in Windows. They are commonly used for software distributions, backups, and file transfers because they can significantly reduce file sizes while maintaining file integrity. Working with compressed files is a common task in Linux environments, and .gz files are a widely used format for storing compressed data.

We cover several techniques, from using basic commands in the terminal to employing software tools that make the process simpler. This guide helps you understand and perform file extraction smoothly and efficiently, ensuring you can handle .gz files without any trouble. GZ files are compressed files that are commonly used in Linux and Unix operating systems to compress and archive files, making them easier to store and transfer. But why are GZ files so popular in Linux, and when should you use them?

The tar command is used to manage TAR and TAR.GZ files on a Linux system, including their creation, modification, and extracting files from them. This command will extract the contents of filename.tar.gz to the /home/user/Documents directory. As the file is the home/user directory we archived, we cannot easily extract it without having to restore the whole directory. Please note that you need to specify the full path to the file or directory you would like to extract. Before creating a Tar archive compressed by Gzip, we need to understand what files we need to include and how we will group them together. Then, we can specify the files manually or create an archive of a whole directory and its subdirectories if there are any.

The above methods work on all the popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Gzip and Gunzip commands can be used to unzip GZ files in Linux, except for compressed Tar archives. Although a TAR.GZ file is a TAR archive compressed by Gzip, only the Tar command will allow you to uncompress and extract files from it. Tar does not change file system attributes such as permissions or ownership of the files included in a tarball; it saves them in an archive. Even after an archive has been created, you can still add or remove files from it or manipulate the filenames unless the archive has been compressed.

This article breaks down the differences between TAR, GZ, TAR.GZ, TGZ, and ZIP files. One is there will be many repeated, identical sequences of bytes throughout a large file. The second reason is the list of strings and tokens needs to be stored in the compressed file so that decompression can take place. With a very small file that overhead can wipe out the benefits of the compression.

Method 1

You can do this from any Finder window on your Mac, and your extracted files will be available in a new folder in the same directory as the original GZ archive. You can open GZ files without using any third-party tools on your Mac. Again, you can either use the Terminal to extract files from a GZ archive or the built-in macOS tool to decompress your files. Since your GZ file might not be compatible with the software you intend to use, it’s a good idea to convert it into a more accessible compression format. Frequently you will need to extract a specific file or folder from a TGZ file archive which is possible using the Tar command.

Now that we how to calculate asset to debt ratio: 12 steps know what gz files are, let’s look into ways of unzipping or opening them. Since after all, it’s only after decompression that the files are of any use or not. Also since we are looking at gz files which are under the GNU umbrella, opening these files on Linux is really easy to do and with a lot of options to choose from. That said, even if you are on another system, you will still be able to open these files, just the methods will be different. Tar is a utility used to merge several files into a single file, usually referred to as an archive, without compressing them.