viewing contents of tar/tar.gz/tgz files

[volvoguy]

I'll admit - I'm no command line whiz, so the answer to my question
may be embarrasingly simple.

I'm used to being able to run:

less somefile.tar.gz

and have it display the contents of the file.

When I do this in Ubuntu, I get the message:

'"somefile.tar.gz" may be a binary file.  See it anyway?'

So what's different in Ubuntu that it doesn't allow me to do what I've
been doing for years on other distros?

Thanks!

-- 
Aaron

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Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere. ~ G.K. Chesterton