need help with tar command

[MidOhioIT]

I have created a tar file with my site backup and I assume it is the full backup.  Not sure becasue I can't "un"-tar the file.

 

I have tried several ways to "unzip" or untar the file but can not come up with anything.

 

 

here is how I had created the tar file:

$date = date("m-d-Y");

// repeat this command for multiple backups, changing the path - e.g. you can have a backup for email, another for files, etc.
shell_exec("tar cvfz file_backup_$date.tar.gz mydir/ "); 

 

now how do extract it?

[Zurev]

Can't you do tar -zxvf ?

[MidOhioIT]

well I have tried the following so far with no luck:

 

$date = date("m-d-Y");

shell_exec(" tar zxvf file_backup_$date.tar.gz mydir/ "); 

shell_exec(" tar zxvf file_backup_$date.tar.gz"); 

shell_exec(" tar -zxvf file_backup_$date.tar.gz"); 

shell_exec('tar -zxvf file_backup_$date.tar.gz'); 

shell_exec('tar -zxvf file_backup_$date.tar.gz *'); 

 

am I doing something wrong?  the php file with this code in it is in the same directory as the tar.gz file.  I expect it to dump all the files into that directory...