tar

This zips the directory and names it xyz.zip in

1zip -r /home/user/xyz.zip /location/of/directory

This unzips the archive

1unzip /home/user/xyz.zip

This tars the directory and names it xyz.tar in /home/user/

1tar -cvf /home/user/xyz.tar /location/of/directory

This untars the archive

1tar -xvf /home/user/xyz.tar -C /location/to/extract/to/

This tar.gzs the directory and names it xyz.tar.gz in /home/user/

1tar -zcvf /home/user/xyz.tar.gz /location/of/directory

This untars the archive

1tar -zxvf /home/user/xyz.tar.gz -C /location/to/extract/to/