List the contents of a compressed file without extracting all the files

tar file:

$ tar -tvf file.tar.gz


tar.gz file:

$ tar -ztvf file.tar.gz


tar.bz2 file

$ tar -jtvf file.tar.bz2


List only specific files:

$ tar -tvf file.tar 'pattern'


Where,

t: List the contents.
f: process the following file name.
v: show detailed information.
z: process tar.gz files.
j: process tar.bz2 files.