How to quickly extract all kinds of archived files from command-line?

Question

Many times I need to extract different kinds of archived files using commad-line. But not all the time I remember the exact command for any type of file archive. So, I have to waste time and search again. How can I avoid this?

Answer 1

The dtrx command is your friend on that matter.

It uncompresses any archive file by guessing its type. It will also make sure the files you uncompress will be put in a new directory ; avoiding messing up the current working dir with tons of files.

Install

sudo aptitude install dtrx

Usage

dtrx stuff.zip

Answer 2

You can use the following shell script (I named it extract and I put it in ~/bin):

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -lt 1 ];then
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` FILES"
  exit 1
fi

# I found the following function at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/168/37944
# which I improved it a little. Many thanks to sydo for this idea.
extract () {
    for arg in $@ ; do
        if [ -f $arg ] ; then
            case $arg in
                *.tar.bz2)  tar xjf $arg      ;;
                *.tar.gz)   tar xzf $arg      ;;
                *.bz2)      bunzip2 $arg      ;;
                *.gz)       gunzip $arg       ;;
                *.tar)      tar xf $arg       ;;
                *.tbz2)     tar xjf $arg      ;;
                *.tgz)      tar xzf $arg      ;;
                *.zip)      unzip $arg        ;;
                *.Z)        uncompress $arg   ;;
                *.rar)      rar x $arg        ;;  # 'rar' must to be installed
                *.jar)      jar -xvf $arg     ;;  # 'jdk' must to be installed
                *)          echo "'$arg' cannot be extracted via extract()" ;;
            esac
        else
            echo "'$arg' is not a valid file"
        fi
    done
}

extract $@

Don't forget to make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/bin/extract

Usage:

extract file_1 file_2 ... file_n