Linux

I remember it like this:
tar -extract ze file
and
tar -compress ze file

I hope whoever thought -l should mean "check links" instead of list has a special place in Hell set aside for them.

I have no idea what print a message if not all links are dumped even means.

You also don't need the dash for the short options.

Also, if you're compressing with bzip2 and have archives bigger than a few megabytes I'll like you a lot more if you do it with --use-compress-prog=pbzip2

Those are straightforward; it's the remaining 900 options that are confusing. I always need to look up --excludes and always get --directory wrong, somehow.

Ah yes, that's the linux community as I know it. There is one thing someone wants to achieve and dozens of ways to do it. ;)

Why when explaining, giving examples of shell command are people so often providing shortened arguments. It makes it all seam like some random letters you have to remeber by heart. Instead of -x just write --extract. If in the end they endup using the tool so often they need to write it fast they'll check the shortcuts.

I don't think tar is actually hard, we are just in the time where we externalize more information into resources such as Google. Its the same reason why younger people don't remember routes by name or cardinal direction as much anymore.

side note: $ tldr is much better than man for just getting common stuff done.

The “-“ is often not necessary. I use it as a guide to see how long the person running tar has been using it.

Example:

tar -xf file.tar == tar xf file.tar

Simple:

tar -(whatever options you want here, my go to is xvzf or cvzf) archive-name.tar file/folder-to-compress

I know the basics off by heart. Not the hardest command syntax to learn all things considered.

The most annoying would be the growing collection of "uber commands" which are much more of a pain in the ass - aws, systemctl, docker, kubectl, npm, cargo, etc. - the executable has potentially dozens of subcommands, each of which has dozens of parameters.

I use Linux for years and still Google every time I have to use it!

tar is just the worst shell command in existence. Why do people still bother with it?

Yes, that's all very well, but you'll still need to find that image the next time you want to use it.

What is "listing"?

As a mnemonic I usually read the "f" as "fucking":

• tar, compress fucking pics.tar.gz with junk from ./pics
• tar, extract fucking pics.tar.gz

That's only for scripting though. Most of the time I simply right-click the directory or archive, and let Engrampa deal with it.

Just use Ouch!

Thank you, I still don't understand.

I just have pack and extract functions in my shell RC files that look at file extensions and use the proper tool with proper arguments.

Wrote them 10 years ago and they've worked flawlessly ever since!

dtrx is the way to do it. It's short for "do the right extraction", and it just works.

Also, all you have to remember for tar is "-xtract -zee -vucking -files" (extract the fucking files, but first letters only)

Just add -a for auto compression.