FILE COMPRESSION TOOLS

gzip bzip2 xz zip zcat zless zdiff zgrep

join and compress files in current folder and subfolders and copmress it with gzip

tar zcvf file.tar.gz *

decompress and restores file.tar.gz in current folder

tar xf file.tar.gz

compress into a gzip file

tar -zcvfp filename.tar.gz files

Where

z uses gzip
c creates new file
v verbose
f specifies where to put the new compression (filename.tar.gz)
p preserves permissions

uncompress in current folder

tar -xvpzf filename.tar

uncompress in folder path_to_folder

tar -xvpzf filename.tar -C path_to_folder

list contents

tar -ztvf filename.tar.gz