SUSE LINUX Documentation - Index of
SUSE LINUX Documentation - Index of
SUSE LINUX Documentation - Index of
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102 Start-Up<br />
tar -cvf testarchive.tar test. After that, view the contents <strong>of</strong> the archive<br />
file with tar -tf testarchive.tar. The test directory with all its files and<br />
directories has remained unchanged on your hard disk. To unpack the archive, enter<br />
tar -xvf testarchive.tar, but do not try this yet.<br />
For file compression, the obvious choice is gzip or, for a even better compression ratio,<br />
bzip2. Just enter gzip testarchive.tar (or bzip2 testarchive.tar,<br />
but gzip is used in this example). With ls, now see that the file testarchive.tar<br />
is no longer there and that the file testarchive.tar.gz has been created instead.<br />
This file is much smaller and therefore much better suited for transfer via e-mail or<br />
storage on a USB stick.<br />
Now, unpack this file in the test2 directory created earlier. To do so, enter cp<br />
testarchive.tar.gz test2 to copy the file to that directory. Change to the<br />
directory with cd test2. A compressed archive with the .tar.gz extension can<br />
be unzipped with the gunzip command. Enter gunzip testarchive.tar.gz,<br />
which results in the file testarchive.tar, which then needs to be extracted or<br />
untarred with tar -xvf testarchive.tar. You can also unzip and extract a<br />
compressed archive in one step with tar -xvf testarchive.tar.gz (adding<br />
the -z option is no longer required). With ls, you can see that a new test directory<br />
has been created with the same contents as your test directory in your home directory.<br />
3.1.6 Cleaning Up<br />
After this crash course, you should be familiar with the basics <strong>of</strong> the Linux shell or<br />
command line. You may want to clean up your home directory by deleting the various<br />
test files and directories using the rm and rmdir commands. In Section 3.3, “Important<br />
Linux Commands” (page 106), find a list <strong>of</strong> the most important commands and a brief<br />
description <strong>of</strong> their functions.<br />
3.2 Users and Access Permissions<br />
Since its inception in the early 1990s, Linux has been developed as a multiuser system.<br />
Any number <strong>of</strong> users can work on it simultaneously. Users need to log in to the system<br />
before starting a session at their workstations. Each user has a username with a corresponding<br />
password. This differentiation <strong>of</strong> users guarantees that unauthorized users<br />
cannot see files for which they do not have permission. Larger changes to the system,