Python - extract a tar.gz archive

# extract a tar.gz file with the tarfile module
import tarfile
 
# open the tarfile and use the 'r:gz' parameter
# the 'r:gz' mode enables gzip compression reading
tfile = tarfile.open("archive.tar.gz", 'r:gz')
 
# 99.9% of the time you just want to extract all
# the contents of the archive.
tfile.extractall('.')
 
# Maybe this isn't so amazing for you types out
# there using *nix, os x, or (anything other than
# windows that comes with tar and gunzip scripts).
# However, if you find yourself on windows and
# need to extract a tar.gz you're in for quite the
# freeware/spyware/spamware gauntlet.
 
# Python has everything you need built in!
# Hooray for python!
print "Done!"