Create a tar.xz in one command

Question

I am trying to create a .tar.xz compressed archive in one command. What is the specific syntax for that?

I have tried tar cf - file | xz file.tar.xz

Answer 1

Quick Solution

tarxz() { tar cf - "$1" | xz -4e > "$1".tar.xz ; }
tarxz name_of_directory

(Notice, not name_of_directory/)

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Using xz compression options

If you want to use compression options for xz, or if you are using tar on MacOS, you probably want to avoid the tar -cJf syntax.

According to man xz, the way to do this is:

tar cf - filename | xz -4e > filename.tar.xz

Because I liked Wojciech Adam Koszek's format, but not information:

1. c creates a new archive for the specified files.
2. f reads from a directory (best to put this second because -cf != -fc)
3. - outputs to Standard Output
4. | pipes output to the next command
5. xz -4e calls xz with the -4e compression option. (equal to -4 --extreme)
6. > filename.tar.xz directs the tarred and compressed file to filename.tar.xz

where -4e is, use your own compression options. I often use -k to --keep the original file and -9 for really heavy compression. -z to manually set xz to zip, though it defaults to zipping if not otherwise directed.

To uncompress and untar

To echo Rafael van Horn, to uncompress & untar (see note below):

xz -dc filename.tar.xz | tar x

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Note: unlike Rafael's answer, use xz -dc instead of catxz. The docs recommend this in case you are using this for scripting. Best to have a habit of using -d or --decompress instead of unxz as well. However, if you must, using those commands from the command line is fine.