Which command would you use to extract a tar.gz file?

The command to extract a tar.gz file involves both the tar utility and the gzip compression tool. A tar.gz file is essentially a tar archive that has been compressed using gzip. The correct command incorporates various options that allow us to handle both tasks—extracting the archive and decompressing the contents.

The specific command "tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz" does the following:

• 'z' indicates that the archive is compressed with gzip, enabling the tar command to automatically decompress it as it extracts the contents.
• 'x' stands for extract, which tells the tar command to unpack the files from the archive.
• 'v' stands for verbose; it provides a list of files being extracted, which can be helpful for monitoring the extraction process.
• 'f' indicates that a file is being used, followed by the name of the archive.

This command ensures that both the extraction and decompression are performed in a single step, making it the most efficient choice for handling tar.gz files. The other options either lack the proper combination of flags for extraction, are intended for different purposes, or don't utilize the tar command correctly for this specific file type.