What does the command 'tar -z' indicate?

The command 'tar -z' indicates the use of gzip for compression. When you use the '-z' option with the tar command, it instructs tar to compress the resulting archive using gzip, which is a widely used compression program that reduces the size of files. This makes the archived files smaller, which can be beneficial when saving space or transferring files over the network.

Gzip is favored in many situations due to its effective compression algorithms and relatively fast decompression speeds. The combination of tar and gzip is common in Unix and Linux systems for creating compressed archive files, often with a .tar.gz or .tgz extension.

Understanding this command is crucial for file management and backup tasks in a Linux environment, where efficient data handling plays a significant role.