All I ever need to remember:<p><pre><code>    atool -x archive.{zip,jar,rar,cab,deb,rpm,tar,tar.{gz,Z,bz2,xz}}
</code></pre>
(list of supported formats is <i>not</i> complete)<p>With a simple alias, it isn&#x27;t even necessary to remember the -x<p><pre><code>    alias xx=&quot;atool -x&quot;
</code></pre>
This also protects you from badly made archives that explode hundreds of files into the current directory. All decompression is done in a temporary subdir, which is removed if there was only one file&#x2F;dir at the top level.<p>For xkcd, see atool&#x27;s --explain or --simulate options that show you the generated tar&#x2F;etc commands.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nongnu.org&#x2F;atool&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nongnu.org&#x2F;atool&#x2F;</a>