Compress/Uncompress in Linux/Unix

Compress the folder named sites inside the /home/kabalweg directory:

$ tar -zcvf my_archive.tar.gz /home/kabalweg/sites

Uncompress file into the current directory:

$ tar -zxvf my_archive.tar.gz

Where: 

z = compress archive using gzip program

c = create archive 

v = verbose i.e display progress while creating archive
f = archive File name 

x = extract files