Looking at tar file contents

Before unpacking a tar file, look at its contents! Not all tar files unpack themselves into a directory. :-(
Use tar -t, it is safe.
Example: tar -tvf ddd-3.1.6.tar
Example: tar -tvzf ddd-3.1.6.tar.gz
Switches: -t list files in the archive -v verbose -f tar file name -z compressed (gzip) tar file in use -I compressed (bzip2) tar file in use

Before unpacking a tar file, look at its contents! Not all tar files unpack themselves into a directory. :-(