How do I extract a tar file in Java?

You can do this with the Apache Commons Compress library. You can download the 1.2 version from http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.commons/commons-compress/1.2.

Here are two methods: one that unzips a file and another one that untars it. So, for a file
<fileName>tar.gz, you need to first unzip it and after that untar it. Please note that the tar archive may contain folders as well, case in which they need to be created on the local filesystem.

Enjoy.

/** Untar an input file into an output file.

 * The output file is created in the output folder, having the same name
 * as the input file, minus the '.tar' extension. 
 * 
 * @param inputFile     the input .tar file
 * @param outputDir     the output directory file. 
 * @throws IOException 
 * @throws FileNotFoundException
 *  
 * @return  The {@link List} of {@link File}s with the untared content.
 * @throws ArchiveException 
 */
private static List<File> unTar(final File inputFile, final File outputDir) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException, ArchiveException {

    LOG.info(String.format("Untaring %s to dir %s.", inputFile.getAbsolutePath(), outputDir.getAbsolutePath()));

    final List<File> untaredFiles = new LinkedList<File>();
    final InputStream is = new FileInputStream(inputFile); 
    final TarArchiveInputStream debInputStream = (TarArchiveInputStream) new ArchiveStreamFactory().createArchiveInputStream("tar", is);
    TarArchiveEntry entry = null; 
    while ((entry = (TarArchiveEntry)debInputStream.getNextEntry()) != null) {
        final File outputFile = new File(outputDir, entry.getName());
        if (entry.isDirectory()) {
            LOG.info(String.format("Attempting to write output directory %s.", outputFile.getAbsolutePath()));
            if (!outputFile.exists()) {
                LOG.info(String.format("Attempting to create output directory %s.", outputFile.getAbsolutePath()));
                if (!outputFile.mkdirs()) {
                    throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("Couldn't create directory %s.", outputFile.getAbsolutePath()));
                }
            }
        } else {
            LOG.info(String.format("Creating output file %s.", outputFile.getAbsolutePath()));
            final OutputStream outputFileStream = new FileOutputStream(outputFile); 
            IOUtils.copy(debInputStream, outputFileStream);
            outputFileStream.close();
        }
        untaredFiles.add(outputFile);
    }
    debInputStream.close(); 

    return untaredFiles;
}

/**
 * Ungzip an input file into an output file.
 * <p>
 * The output file is created in the output folder, having the same name
 * as the input file, minus the '.gz' extension. 
 * 
 * @param inputFile     the input .gz file
 * @param outputDir     the output directory file. 
 * @throws IOException 
 * @throws FileNotFoundException
 *  
 * @return  The {@File} with the ungzipped content.
 */
private static File unGzip(final File inputFile, final File outputDir) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {

    LOG.info(String.format("Ungzipping %s to dir %s.", inputFile.getAbsolutePath(), outputDir.getAbsolutePath()));

    final File outputFile = new File(outputDir, inputFile.getName().substring(0, inputFile.getName().length() - 3));

    final GZIPInputStream in = new GZIPInputStream(new FileInputStream(inputFile));
    final FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(outputFile);

    IOUtils.copy(in, out);

    in.close();
    out.close();

    return outputFile;
}