tar with compression (-z, -j, -J) in Linux CLI - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this tar command?

You run this command in a directory containing a file named file.txt with the text Hello inside:

tar -czf archive.tar.gz file.txt && tar -tzf archive.tar.gz

What will be the output?

Linux CLI

tar -czf archive.tar.gz file.txt && tar -tzf archive.tar.gz

A file.txt

B file.txt\narchive.tar.gz

C archive.tar.gz

D Error: Cannot list compressed archive

💡 Hint

The -t option lists files inside the archive. The -z option means gzip compression.

The command creates a gzip compressed archive named archive.tar.gz containing file.txt. The tar -tzf command lists the files inside the gzip compressed archive, which is just file.txt.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What error does this command produce?

You run this command:

tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 file.txt && tar -tzf archive.tar.bz2

What error message will you see?

Linux CLI

tar -cjf archive.tar.bz2 file.txt && tar -tzf archive.tar.bz2

A tar: This does not look like a tar archive

B No such file or directory

C file.txt

D archive.tar.bz2

💡 Hint

The -j option compresses with bzip2, but the -z option tries to decompress with gzip.

The archive is compressed with bzip2 (-j), but the listing command uses -z which expects gzip compression. This mismatch causes tar to fail with the error 'This does not look like a tar archive'.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly creates an xz compressed tar archive?

You want to create a tar archive compressed with xz compression named archive.tar.xz containing the folder data. Which command is correct?

A tar -cZf archive.tar.xz data

B tar -cJf archive.tar.xz data

C tar -cjf archive.tar.xz data

D tar -czf archive.tar.xz data

💡 Hint

The -J option is for xz compression.

The -J option tells tar to use xz compression. Other options are for different compressions: -z gzip, -j bzip2, -Z compress (rare).

🚀 Application

advanced

How to extract a bzip2 compressed archive to a specific folder?

You have a bzip2 compressed tar archive named backup.tar.bz2. You want to extract its contents into the folder /tmp/restore. Which command will do this correctly?

A tar -xvf backup.tar.bz2 /tmp/restore

B tar -xzf backup.tar.bz2 -C /tmp/restore

C tar -xJf backup.tar.bz2 -C /tmp/restore

D tar -xjf backup.tar.bz2 -C /tmp/restore

💡 Hint

Use -j for bzip2 and -C to specify extraction directory.

The -j option decompresses bzip2 archives. The -C option tells tar to change to the specified directory before extracting files.

🔧 Debug

expert

Why does this tar extraction fail with 'Cannot open: No such file or directory'?

You run this command:

tar -xzf archive.tar.bz2

and get the error:

tar: archive.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory

What is the most likely cause?

Linux CLI

tar -xzf archive.tar.bz2

A The archive is corrupted

B The -z option cannot be used with .bz2 files

C The file archive.tar.bz2 does not exist in the current directory

D You need to run the command as root

💡 Hint

Check if the file is present in the folder you are running the command from.

The error means the file archive.tar.bz2 is not found in the current directory. The -z option mismatch would cause a different error. Running as root or corruption would not cause 'No such file or directory'.