Extract Files to Other Folder Using Tar

To extract files from a tarball to a folder other than the current one, simply add -C /path/you/desire/ to the end of the normal syntax. Examples follow.

Extract a zipped tarball:
tar -xvzf ./filename.tgz -C /home/user/jackrabbit/

Extract a bz2 tarball:
tar -xvjf ./filename.bz2 -C /my/desired/path/