How to compress/decompress in Linux

Linux has some tools to compress files and extract archives. You can see some of them listed in the tables below. First table has the decompression commands:

To see system information for each command, type commandname --help at the terminal, like:

root@web [~]# gzip --help
Usage: gzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Compress or uncompress FILEs (by default, compress FILES in-place).

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

  -c, --stdout      write on standard output, keep original files unchanged
  -d, --decompress  decompress
  -f, --force       force overwrite of output file and compress links
  -h, --help        give this help
  -l, --list        list compressed file contents
  -L, --license     display software license
  -n, --no-name     do not save or restore the original name and time stamp
  -N, --name        save or restore the original name and time stamp
  -q, --quiet       suppress all warnings
  -r, --recursive   operate recursively on directories
  -S, --suffix=SUF  use suffix SUF on compressed files
  -t, --test        test compressed file integrity
  -v, --verbose     verbose mode
  -V, --version     display version number
  -1, --fast        compress faster
  -9, --best        compress better
    --rsyncable   Make rsync-friendly archive

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Report bugs to <bug-gzip@gnu.org>.
root@web [~]#

So, for extracting a .gz archive, use the gzip tool:

root@web [/]# gzip -d archive_file.gz

or gunzip

root@web [/]# gunzip archive_file.gz

But how you compress your files? In the table below see some commands for compressing files/directories:

For example, to compress a full directory(with all subdirectories), use:

root@web [/]# tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /home/temp2/

Another common archive type is RAR. You can download the RAR program from http://rarlabs.com/download.htm (for Linux 32/64 only a command line version is available).
How to install it:

root@web [/temp2]# wget http://rarlabs.com/rar/rarlinux-x64-5.5.b3.tar.gz
--2017-05-26 14:54:47--  http://rarlabs.com/rar/rarlinux-x64-5.5.b3.tar.gz
Resolving rarlabs.com (rarlabs.com)... 5.135.104.98
Connecting to rarlabs.com (rarlabs.com)|5.135.104.98|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 534195 (522K) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: 'rarlinux-x64-5.5.b3.tar.gz'

100%[========================================================================================================

2017-05-26 14:54:48 (845 KB/s) - 'rarlinux-x64-5.5.b3.tar.gz' saved [534195/534195]
root@web [/temp2]# tar -zxvf rarlinux-x64-5.5.b3.tar.gz
rar/
rar/order.htm
rar/acknow.txt
rar/readme.txt
rar/default.sfx
rar/license.txt
rar/rarfiles.lst
rar/whatsnew.txt
rar/makefile
rar/rar
rar/unrar
rar/rar.txt
root@web [/temp2]# cd rar
root@web [/temp2/rar]# install rar unrar
root@web [/temp2/rar]# rar -?

RAR 5.50 beta 3   Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal   23 May 2017
Trial version             Type 'rar -?' for help

Usage:     rar <command></command> - -  
               <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract\>

  a             Add files to archive
  c             Add archive comment
  ch            Change archive parameters
  cw            Write archive comment to file
  d             Delete files from archive
  e             Extract files without archived paths
  f             Freshen files in archive
  i[par]=  Find string in archives
  k             Lock archive
  l[t[a],b]     List archive contents [technical[all], bare]
  m[f]          Move to archive [files only]
  p             Print file to stdout
  r             Repair archive
  rc            Reconstruct missing volumes
  rn            Rename archived files
  rr[N]         Add data recovery record
  rv[N]         Create recovery volumes
  s[name|-]     Convert archive to or from SFX
  t             Test archive files
  u             Update files in archive
  v[t[a],b]     Verbosely list archive contents [technical[all],bare]
  x             Extract files with full path
....