Linux Archives & Compression: tar, gzip, xz, zstd, zip
Working reference for Linux archives and compression. tar bundles, gzip / bzip2 / xz / zstd / lz4 squeeze - speed vs ratio trade-offs (zstd as modern Pareto-optimal default, gzip for compatibility, xz for tightest), tar create / extract / list flags (c / x / t / f / v / z / j / J / a auto-detect), the c-vs-x mnemonic, common --exclude patterns, the zcat / zless / zgrep family for working with compressed files in place, zip for cross-platform Windows-friendly archives, 7z for strong AES encryption, recipes (timestamped backups, archive verification, streaming over SSH, parallel compression with pigz / pbzip2 / zstd -T0). Pitfalls: tar c-vs-x mixup, recursive backup-includes-itself, re-compressing already-compressed media, xz memory hunger on small VMs, gzip removing the original.