Linux newbie question

[drewski]

Just download flash plug-in for netscape. Instructions say to unpack file and then copy some files to netscape directories.

What is the command/application to unpack?

Am using Mandrake 8.0, if that matters

 

[MGMorden]

if it's a .tar.gz file then the command for unpackins is:

tar xvfz [file]

for .gz it's:

gunzip [file]

for .zip it's

unzip [file]

 

[drewski]

Never mind, figured it out.

Question, though. Why do these linux downloads come as *.tar.gz? So first you gzip it, then tar.

Seems kinda redundant. Aren't both of these compression programs? Or is 'tar' just an archival program that makes 1 big file and then it still needs to get compressed.

 

[Supergax]

tar, which stands for tape archive, was used for tape backup in the ol' days (still is used for this also), but it is mostly used now for archiving many files for transfer, making a bunch of files into one. However, they are not compressed, that is where gzip comes in. That is what actually compresses the files. As MGMorden stated, you can type tar xvzf filename to unzip and untar the files in one command, the z switch is what tells it that it needs to be unzipped.