[ale] Q: How to get minimal bloat while unpacking tarball?

[Mills.J at ems-t.com (Mills, John M.)]

ALErs -

I have an update/install procedure that is basically:
# cd / ; tar xzvf <tarball_file>

The file is unpacking into a linux filesystem that occupies about 75% of
its capacity, and mainly replaces files that are already there with
newer versions. In fact it replaces a large percentage of the files.

When I unpack the tarball the original files don't seem to be
immediately replaced, because I fill the system to 100% capacity and
halt the unpacking before it's quite done, although no single file is
anything like as large as the original surplus space that was available.

Is there a way to incrementally unpack an archive so the old contents'
space is recovered along the way, or does it sound like there's some
other problem here?

TIA.

 - Mills