> user at box$ bunzip2 bf1942-lnxded-1.2beta1.tar.bz2 > user at box$ tar -xvf bf1942-lnxded-1.2beta1.tar You can also combine these two commands into one command like this: user at box$ tar xvjf bf1942-lnxded-1.2beta1.tar.bz2 Either way will work. Shockwave