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Many times I need to extract different kinds of archived files using commad-line. But not all the time I remember the exact command for any type of file archive. So, I have to waste time and search again. How can I avoid this?

Radu Rădeanu
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    See also `atool`, with which you can extract/pack multiple formats: see the answer I gave for this question: [command-line-archive-manager-extracter](http://askubuntu.com/questions/57981/command-line-archive-manager-extracter/220367#220367). This question is also a duplicate of that one, so they probably should be merged. –  Aug 29 '13 at 12:00
  • Related: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/73359/universal-extractors – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Nov 05 '20 at 14:51

2 Answers2

16

You can use the following shell script (I named it extract and I put it in ~/bin):

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -lt 1 ];then
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` FILES"
  exit 1
fi

# I found the following function at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/168/37944
# which I improved it a little. Many thanks to sydo for this idea.
extract () {
    for arg in $@ ; do
        if [ -f $arg ] ; then
            case $arg in
                *.tar.bz2)  tar xjf $arg      ;;
                *.tar.gz)   tar xzf $arg      ;;
                *.bz2)      bunzip2 $arg      ;;
                *.gz)       gunzip $arg       ;;
                *.tar)      tar xf $arg       ;;
                *.tbz2)     tar xjf $arg      ;;
                *.tgz)      tar xzf $arg      ;;
                *.zip)      unzip $arg        ;;
                *.Z)        uncompress $arg   ;;
                *.rar)      rar x $arg        ;;  # 'rar' must to be installed
                *.jar)      jar -xvf $arg     ;;  # 'jdk' must to be installed
                *)          echo "'$arg' cannot be extracted via extract()" ;;
            esac
        else
            echo "'$arg' is not a valid file"
        fi
    done
}

extract $@

Don't forget to make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/bin/extract

Usage:

extract file_1 file_2 ... file_n
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Radu Rădeanu
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  • Nice one. I find that zip sometimes extracts into the current directory, when I want it it its own subdirectory. Using unzip -d `basename $arg` might help. – crafter Sep 08 '13 at 20:57
15

The dtrx command is your friend on that matter.

It uncompresses any archive file by guessing its type. It will also make sure the files you uncompress will be put in a new directory ; avoiding messing up the current working dir with tons of files.

Install

sudo aptitude install dtrx

Usage

dtrx stuff.zip
Thomasleveil
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