How can I view the contents of tar.gz file without extracting from the command-line?
Run the below command in the terminal to see the contents of a tar.gz file without extracting it:
tar -tf filename.tar.gz
-t, --list
List the contents of an archive. Arguments are optional. When given, they specify the names of the members to list.
-f, --file=ARCHIVE Use archive file or device ARCHIVE...
You can also use vim
vim filename.tar.gz
less
can also open gz
-compressed and uncompressed tar
archives. It gives you a lovely ls -l
style output too:
$ less ~/src/compiz_0.9.7.8-0ubuntu1.6.debian.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x 0/0 0 2012-09-21 11:41 debian/
drwxrwxr-x 0/0 0 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/source/
-rw-rw-r-- 0/0 12 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/source/format
-rw-rw-r-- 0/0 25 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/libdecoration0-dev.docs
-rw-rw-r-- 0/0 25 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/compiz-dev.docs
-rw-rw-r-- 0/0 347 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/compiz-core.install
-rw-rw-r-- 0/0 125 2012-08-09 13:32 debian/libdecoration0-dev.install
...
And because it's less
, you can scroll through it, search it, etc. However it fails miserably with other compression algorithms (in my experience).