untar

Extract contents of tar file

Syntax

untar(tarfilename)

untar(tarfilename,outputfolder)

filenames = untar(___)

Description

untar(tarfilename) extracts the archived contents of tarfilename into the current folder, preserving the attributes and timestamps of each file. untar can extract files from your local system or files from an Internet URL.

If a file exists with the same name and the file is not read-only, MATLAB^® overwrites it. On Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms, MATLAB does not set the hidden, system, and archive attributes.

untar(tarfilename,outputfolder) extracts the archived contents of tarfilename into outputfolder. If outputfolder does not exist, MATLAB creates it.

filenames = untar(___) returns a cell array of character vectors containing the names of the extracted files. You can use this syntax with any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.

Examples

Extract Tar File to New Folder

Create a tar file, and then extract it to the folder backup.

Create a tar file of all the program files in the current folder.

tar('myfiles.tar.gz',{'*.m','*.mlx'});

Extract myfiles.tar.gz to the folder backup.

programFiles = untar('myfiles','backup')

programFiles = 1x3 cell
    {'backup/myfile1.m'}    {'backup/myfile2.m'}    {'backup/ExtractTarFileToNewFolderExample.mlx'}

Extract Archive File from URL

Download and extract an archive file from a URL to a local folder.

Suppose you have the archive file example.tar.gz stored at the URL http://example.com/example.tar.gz. Download and extract the file to the example folder.

url = 'http://example.com/example.tar.gz';
gunzip(url, 'example');
untar('example/example.tar','example');

Input Arguments

tarfilename — Name of tar file

character vector | string scalar

Name of tar file to extract from, specified as a character vector or a string scalar. If tarfilename has no extension, MATLAB searches for tarfilename appended with .tgz, .tar.gz, or .tar. If you specify a .tgz or .gz extension, then untar extracts the specified file using gunzip.

You can specify tarfilename as an absolute path, or a path relative to the current folder.

If tarfilename is a URL, then tarfilename must include the protocol type (for example, http://). MATLAB downloads the URL to the temporary folder on your system, and then deletes the URL on cleanup.

Data Types: char | string

outputfolder — Target folder

character vector | string scalar

Target folder for the extracted files, specified as a character vector or a string scalar.

Data Types: char | string

Output Arguments

filenames — Names of extracted files

cell array of character vectors

Names of extracted files, returned as a cell array of character vectors. If outputfolder specifies a relative path, filenames contains the relative path. If outputfolder specifies an absolute path, filenames contains the absolute path.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2021a: untar will replace invalid characters in the pathname with an underscore

• Starting in R2021a on Windows, untar replaces each invalid character in the pathname with an underscore to successfully extract the entry. Invalid characters include <>:*?|" .

R2021a: untar selects the permissions of the file rather than those of its symbolic link

• Starting in R2021a on Linux^® and macOS, if you pass a symbolic link to a file to untar, it saves the file permissions of the file itself in the archive rather than those of the symbolic link.