$ tree before/ before/ ├── one │ ├── two │ │ └── three │ └── two1 └── one1 3 directories, 2 files $ tar czvf dummy.tgz before before/ before/one/ before/one/two1 before/one/two/ before/one/two/three/ before/one1 $ mkdir after && tar xzvf dummy.tgz -C after --strip-components 1 before/one/ before/one/two1 before/one/two/ before/one/two/three/ before/one1 $ tree after/ after/ ├── one │ ├──