Tar Option to Use External Compression Program on Ubuntu

This article explains how to configure the tar utility in Ubuntu to utilize external compression tools. It identifies the specific command-line flag required to integrate third-party compressors instead of built-in methods. Readers will learn the syntax and see practical examples of implementing this feature.

The specific option that allows tar to use an external compression program is --use-compress-program. You can also use the shorthand -I to achieve the same result. This flag instructs tar to pipe data through a specified external command for compression or decompression rather than using internal flags like -z or -j.

To implement this, append the option followed by the program name to your tar command. For example, if you want to use pigz for parallel gzip compression, you would run:

tar --use-compress-program=pigz -cf archive.tar.gz /path/to/folder

Using the short form simplifies the command structure:

tar -I pigz -cf archive.tar.gz /path/to/folder

This method works with any compression utility that reads from standard input and writes to standard output. It provides flexibility when native tar flags do not support your preferred algorithm on your Ubuntu system.