To list the contents of an archive called tarball.tar.gz use this command:
tar -tzf tarball.tar.gz
example:
tarball/file1.txt
tarball/.bash_logout
tarball/file2.txt
tarball/bash.txt
tarball/.bash_history
Then you extract whatever you wish using this command:
tar -zxvf tarball.tar.gz tarball/bash.txt
example:
find . -type f
./tarball/bash.txt
./tarball.tar.gz
To extract a few files use this:
tar -zxvf tarball.tar.gz tarball/bash.txt tarball/file1.txt
find . -type f
./tarball/bash.txt
./tarball/file1.txt
./tarball.tar.gz