Using tar

[gshang at uq.net.au]

> I then went to the directory and tried tar -x filename and heard
>nothing.  Only control-z or was it -c worked to get me back to the prompt.

You almost got it.  You want:

tar -xf filename

Note that many tar files are gzipped as well (i.e. they're tar.gz files), 
so you would need

tar -zxf filename

for these.  Also note that most tar files have their own subdir in them so 
they'll unpack underneath where you are.

Geoff.