Python - extract or unzip a tar file

# untar a tar file with python
# python can open, inspect contents, and extract
#   tar files with the built-in
#   tarfile module.
import tarfile
 
# tar file to extract
theTarFile = 'example.tar'
 
# tar file path to extract
extractTarPath = '.'
 
# open the tar file
tfile = tarfile.open(theTarFile)
 
if tarfile.is_tarfile(theTarFile):
    # list all contents
    print "tar file contents:"
    print tfile.list(verbose=False)
    # extract all contents
    tfile.extractall(extractTarPath)
else:
    print theTarFile + " is not a tarfile."