Uncompressing files via the terminal?

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by AppleMatt, Jun 27, 2003.

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  1. AppleMatt, Jun 27, 2003

    AppleMatt macrumors 68000

    AppleMatt

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    #1
    A while ago I read a comment on versiontracker that uncompressing files via the terminal was upto 20% faster than suffit.

    Now I actually need to uncompress files via the terminal, can someone please tell me how to do this? I've searched my heart out and all I get is contents lists for training CD's

    AppleMatt
     
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  2. Nermal, Jun 27, 2003

    Nermal Moderator

    Nermal

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    #2
    What sort of files are you trying to decompress? I don't know how to decompress .sit files, but .tar and .gz and be done using the "tar" command. You usually type something like "tar -zxf filename", but the "zxf" can change depending on what type of file it is.
     
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  3. AppleMatt, Jun 27, 2003

    AppleMatt thread starter macrumors 68000

    AppleMatt

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    #3
    ah, excellent Nermal thanks.

    It is a .gz file. Do you know how to specify another drive? It is resided on the second partition, I would like to unizip it to a directory on the desktop (first partition).

    If not, I'll just copy it across then uncompress, just would be interesting to learn a few new things while doing this.

    AppleMatt
     
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  4. mc68k, Jun 27, 2003

    mc68k macrumors 68000

    mc68k

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    #4
    gunzip also works for decompressing .gz files

    type in man gunzip for details

     
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  5. evildead, Jun 29, 2003

    evildead macrumors 65816

    evildead

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    #5
    .gz

    the syntax for gunzip is like this

    gunzip yourFile.gz <destination>


    for example lets say your .gz file is on a second drive or partition and you want to uncompress it to your desktop

    you want to go to the location of the .gz file first

    # cd /volumes/drive2/folder/

    then uncompress it from there

    gunzip yourFile.gz /users/username/desktop/


    the command cd changes you to a directory. you can go backwards by doing a cd ..

    the command ls lists all the files in the your current dirctory
     
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  6. jakerspigglywin, Feb 12, 2008

    jakerspigglywin macrumors newbie

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    Feb 12, 2008
    #6
    uncompressing a .md5 movie

    So I have this .md5 movie file and my friend said I need to uncompress it. He's a PC user so he has no idea how to do this on a mac. Could someone take me step through step on how to do this?
     
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