Decompress tar files

tar files: It is a compressed file often used in Linux (similar to zip files in Windows)

tar -xvf compressed_file.tar

tar -xvf compressed_file.tar --directory /path/to/directory

[1] StackExchange, "Are there other options to unzip a file in Ubuntu besides “unzip”? [closed]" (link)
[2] Some blog posting, "tar command in Linux with examples" (link)