Extract to current directory
tar -xvf foo.tar.gz
Extract to arbitrary directory
tar -xvf foo.tar.gz -C extraction_path
Extract inclusively
tar -xvf foo.tar.gz file1 file2
Extract exclusively
tar -xvf foo.tar.gz --exclude=file_to_exclude
Create gzipped archive
tar -czvf foo.tar.gz file1 file2
Compress exclusively
tar -czvf foo.tar.gz file1 file2 --exclude=file_to_exclude
Create bzip2ed archive
tar -cjvf foo.tar.bz2 file1 file2
Create xzipped archive
tar -cJvf foo.tar.xz file1 file2