What is the terminal command for tar.Bz2 files, please?

[cousinlucky]

I can not find the piece of paper that I wrote this command down on so I have to ask for it again, sorry!! ( my mind is shrinking every day )

I am using ubuntu 8.04! Thanks!

[jeremy1701]

It should be

tar -xjvf file.bz2

The option is:

-j or --bzip2

[cousinlucky]

Thanks Jeremy!! I need to look for an uncomplicated book that contains terminal commands that I can keep right next to my desktop computer!! Thanks Again!!!

[jeremy1701]

Linux in a Nutshell comes highly recommended.

Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition - O'Reilly Media

[reed9]

Another handy thing is to cheat and utilize other people's hard work.

Put this is the file ~/.bashrc

extract () {
    if [[ -f $1 ]] ; then
        case $1 in
            *.tar.bz2)  bzip2 -v -d $1      ;;
            *.tar.gz)   tar -xvzf $1        ;;
            *.rar)      unrar e $1          ;;
            *.deb)      ar -x $1            ;;
            *.bz2)      bzip2 -d $1         ;;
            *.lzh)      lha x $1            ;;
            *.gz)       gunzip -d $1        ;;
            *.tar)      tar -xvf $1         ;;
            *.tgz)      gunzip -d $1        ;;
            *.tbz2)     tar -jxvf $1        ;;
            *.zip)      unzip $1            ;;
            *.Z)        uncompress $1       ;;
            *)          echo "'$1' Error. Please go away" ;;
        esac
    else
        echo "'$1' is not a valid file"
    fi
}

Source that file and now when you can just type

extract filename.zip

Or filename.tar.bz2 or tar.gz or whatever. (You do need all the correct programs installed, unrar, unzip, etc.)

[cousinlucky]

Another handy thing is to cheat and utilize other people's hard work.

Put this is the file ~/.bashrc

extract () {
    if [[ -f $1 ]] ; then
        case $1 in
            *.tar.bz2)  bzip2 -v -d $1      ;;
            *.tar.gz)   tar -xvzf $1        ;;
            *.rar)      unrar e $1          ;;
            *.deb)      ar -x $1            ;;
            *.bz2)      bzip2 -d $1         ;;
            *.lzh)      lha x $1            ;;
            *.gz)       gunzip -d $1        ;;
            *.tar)      tar -xvf $1         ;;
            *.tgz)      gunzip -d $1        ;;
            *.tbz2)     tar -jxvf $1        ;;
            *.zip)      unzip $1            ;;
            *.Z)        uncompress $1       ;;
            *)          echo "'$1' Error. Please go away" ;;
        esac
    else
        echo "'$1' is not a valid file"
    fi
}

Source that file and now when you can just type

extract filename.zip

Or filename.tar.bz2 or tar.gz or whatever. (You do need all the correct programs installed, unrar, unzip, etc.)

Reed I am guessing that you suggest that I copy and paste this into the ~/.bashrc file but I do not have any idea on how to access that file. Which file folder is it in, please?

What do you mean by " source that file " ?

Thanks!!

[reed9]

~ is a shortcut for /home/user/

Just open with any text editor.

gedit ~/.bashrc

The changes don't take effect immediately, but you can source the configuration file in the current session, thereby utilizing the changes

source ~/.bashrc

Or of course restart the session.

[cousinlucky]

Thank You Reed9!! I was born in Boston many moons ago. Everyone says it has changed dramatically after rent control ended in 1997 or 1998!

[reed9]

No problem. I found it somewhere on the Arch forums initially and it seemed a handy idea.

You can change the name to whatever you like too. So the beginning part could be different, shortened if you want so say from this

extract () {

to this

ex () {

And then would you just type ex filename.tar.gz

As for Boston, I was born and raised in Seattle. Been here for just over a year, so I couldn't comment on the changes.