one of the most common commands in linux is the tar command

lets say you just downloaded a file called samba-3.1.4.tar.gz

ok, so how do you extract all the files in the samba-3.1.4.tar.gz file?

easy

for example, if you downloaded samba-3.1.4.tar.gz in your home directory: /home/wallpaperama/scripts/samba-3.1.4.tar.gz

so first lets go to the directory where the tar file is located with this command:

# cd /home/wallpaperama/scripts/

now you can untar the file samba-3.1.4.tar.gz

# tar xvfz samba-3.1.4.tar.gz

ok, so what do those options mean?
x = extract
v = verbose
z = gunzip
f = file

so as soon as you start to send this command you will see all the files start to extract

did you know that you can also use the same command like this:

# tar --extract --verbose --gunzip --file samba-3.1.4.tar.gz