Software Development:
Individual Programming

Symptom

You have a .tar, .tar.gz or .zip file and want to unpack (expand) it.

Solution

.tar, .tar.gz and .zip files contain one or more files and directories. They can contain complete directory trees including all sub directories and files contained therein. Maybe you have previously backed up your /httpdocs document root directory into an archive file and want to recover it now.

A) How to unpack a .zip file using the file manager (available in all Bitpalace web space packages)

1. Login to your web space’s customer control panel.

2. Click on the “File Manager” icon.

3. Select a zip file and click on the “Extract files” icon. You can choose whether existing files with identical names will be overwritten or not. Click “OK” when you are ready.

B) How to unpack .tar or .tar.gz files on the Linux command line (additionally available to (a) on Bitpalace Business Booster web space accounts).

1. Connect to your server by SSH, e.g. using PuTTY.

2. At the file location enter

tar -xf file.tar.gz

Replace “file.tar.gz” with the name of your archive file. For example, if you previously created a backup, the command could be:

tar -xf backup_20161214.tar.gz

Sometimes it is important, that files are not unpacked into existing directories. This is the case if a directory must only contain exactly the files from your archive, e.g. no other, outdated, additional files. If for example a Wordpress installation was hacked and you need to restore it from your archive file, first delete all content from the /httpdocs directory, then unpack the archive file. Else scripts could remain in the directory that a hacker had uploaded into Wordpress before.

Overview of frequently asked questions