Extract a specific file from a tar archive.
Download sample archive file – Do you think you know Python? is a great example here.
$ wget --quiet https://github.com/satwikkansal/wtfpython/archive/v3.0.0.tar.gz
Display archive contents.
$ tar --list --verbose --gzip --file v3.0.0.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 84 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/.gitattributes -rw-rw-r-- root/root 274 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/.gitignore -rw-rw-r-- root/root 120 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/.travis.yml -rw-rw-r-- root/root 2229 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/CONTRIBUTING.md -rw-rw-r-- root/root 2721 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/CONTRIBUTORS.md -rw-rw-r-- root/root 460 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/LICENSE -rw-rw-r-- root/root 109732 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/README.md -rw-rw-r-- root/root 3231 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/code-of-conduct.md drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 8317 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/logo.png drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/string-intern/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 9731 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/string-intern/string_intern.png -rw-rw-r-- root/root 7515 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe.png drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 162385 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe/after_board_initialized.png -rw-rw-r-- root/root 51686 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe/after_row_initialized.png drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 456 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/insert_ids.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 12273 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/notebook_generator.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 1346 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/notebook_instructions.md drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/obsolete/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 1629 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/obsolete/add_categories -rw-rw-r-- root/root 1532 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/obsolete/generate_contributions.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 70597 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/obsolete/initial.md -rw-rw-r-- root/root 4129 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/obsolete/parse_readme.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 209480 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/irrelevant/wtf.ipynb -rw-rw-r-- root/root 205 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/mixed_tabs_and_spaces.py drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 72018 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/content.md -rw-rw-r-- root/root 1521 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/setup.py drwxrwxr-x root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/wtf_python/ -rw-rw-r-- root/root 0 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/wtf_python/__init__.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 868 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/wtf_python/main.py -rw-rw-r-- root/root 136 2019-12-21 17:08 wtfpython-3.0.0/wtfpython-pypi/wtfpython
Extract README.md to the current directory.
$ tar --extract --verbose --gzip --file v3.0.0.tar.gz --strip-components 1 wtfpython-3.0.0/README.md
wtfpython-3.0.0/README.md
$ ls
README.md v3.0.0.tar.gz
Extract README.md to the extracted directory.
$ mkdir extracted
$ tar --extract --verbose --gzip --file v3.0.0.tar.gz --strip-components 1 --directory extracted wtfpython-3.0.0/README.md
wtfpython-3.0.0/README.md
$ ls extracted/
README.md
Extract *.png images that are at least three components deep to the images directory.
$ mkdir images
vagrant@debian:~/test$ tar --extract --verbose --gzip --file v3.0.0.tar.gz --strip-components 3 --directory images --wildcards wtfpython-3.0.0/images/*.png
wtfpython-3.0.0/images/string-intern/string_intern.png wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe/after_board_initialized.png wtfpython-3.0.0/images/tic-tac-toe/after_row_initialized.png
$ ls images/
after_board_initialized.png after_row_initialized.png string_intern.png
