howto use tar to untar (unzip) tar.bz tar.gz tar.xz files

howto use tar to untar (unzip) tar.bz tar.gz tar.xz files

$ tar xvf tar.zz

apparently the latest (xubuntu) version of tar now AUTOMATICALLY recognises the compression that has been used

The only case when you have to specify a decompression option while reading the archive is when reading from a pipe or from a tape drive that does not support random access. However, in this case GNU tar will indicate which option you should use.