How to Compress the whole directory (including subdirectories) using TAR

tar -zcvf [result-filename.tar.gz] [path-of-directory-to-compress]

The -zcvf instruction stand for:

-z: Compress the desired file/directory using gzip

-c: Stand for create file (output tar.gz file)

-v: To display the progress while creating the file

-f: Finally the path of the desire file/directory to compress 

tar -zcvf test_compressed.tar.gz test

This should start the compression of the directory into a new tar file, as we have our -v argument to display the progress in the console, you would see a list of every filename that is being added to the file.

Extracting generated file

If you want now to extract as well with the command line the generated file, you should use now the following command syntax:

tar -xvzf [your-tar-file.tar.gz]

The -zcvf instruction stands for:

-z: Compress the desired file/directory using gzip

-x: Stand for extract file (input tar.gz file). If any files are named on the command line, only those files will be extracted from the archive.

-v: To display the progress while creating the file 

tar -xvzf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz

That will extract the content of the file (sandbox folder) in the current directory.

Extracting content to a custom directory

If you need to extract the content of the generated tar to a custom directory instead of the current directory, you can specify the new directory where the content should be extracted using the -C or --directory option in your extraction command:

tar -xvzf sandbox_compressed.tar.gz -C /target/directory