Unzipping a bz2 file without deleting the original file

To uncompress a bzip2 file, execute the following command

#bunzip2 filename.txt.bz2 (where filename.txt.bz2 is the name of the file you wish to uncompress)

The result of this operation is a file called filename.txt. By default, bunzip2 will delete the filename.txt.bz2 file.

Use -k to keep the original file intact, so the command becomes something like this:

#bunzip2 - k filename.txt.bz2 

Reference: http://www.debianadmin.com/create-and-extract-bz2-and-gz-files.html