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.

No no it's this:

1. Decide you've gotta use tar.

2. man tar

3. Guess-and-check the flags until it seems to work.

4. Immediately forget the flags.

Xtract Ze Vucking File!

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. ;)

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.

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

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.

Or just use long-forms like

tar --create --file pics.tar ./pics

instead of

tar -cf pics.tar ./pics

or

tar --extract --file pics.tar```
instead of

tar -xf pics.tar

which is honestly way easier to remember... \^\^

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

I have to Google for this everytime. What I can never remember is how to check whether I should put my tar.gz into the subfolder first or risk getting a thousand files sprayed into my homedir.

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.

just now realizing that .tar files aren't compressed by default, and that that's the reason why it's always .tar.gz

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

I always just use

"eXtract Zee Files"

Simple:

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

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.

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)

What is "listing"?

Just use Ouch!

Man page for dummies. Nice! I like it!