TAR

    tar xvzf file-1.0.tar.gz - for uncompress a gzip tar file (.tgz or .tar.gz)
    tar xvjf file-1.0.tar.bz2 - for uncompress a bzip2 tar file (.tbz or .tar.bz2)
    tar xvf file-1.0.tar - for uncompressed tar file (.tar)

    * x = eXtract, this indicated an extraction ( c = create to create )
    * v = verbose (optional) the files with relative locations will be displayed.
    * z = gzip-ped; j = bzip2-zipped
    * f = from/to file ... (what is next after the f is the archive file)