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In computing, tar is a computer software utility for collecting many files into one archive file, often referred to as a tarball, for distribution or backup purposes. The name is derived from "tape archive", as it was originally developed to write data to sequential I/O devices with no file system of their own, such as devices that use magnetic tape.
A single file container/archive that can be reconstructed even after total loss of file system structures. .tar application/x-tar Tape archive: Unix-like A common archive format used on Unix-like systems. Generally used in conjunction with compressors such as gzip, bzip2, compress or xz to create .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.Z or tar.xz files.
Archiving various uncompressed files via tar and then compressing yields a compressed archive: a .tar.gz file – this is solid compression. A rough graphical representation: In this example, three files each have a common part with the same information, a unique part with information not in the other files, and an "air" part with low-entropy ...
Archive files are particularly useful in that they store file system data and metadata within the contents of a particular file, and thus can be stored on systems or sent over channels that do not support the file system in question, only file contents – examples include sending a directory structure over email, files with names unsupported on the target file system due to length or ...
[citation needed] More than one extension usually represents nested transformations, such as files.tar.gz (the .tar indicates that the file is a tar archive of one or more files, and the .gz indicates that the tar archive file is compressed with gzip). Programs transforming or creating files may add the appropriate extension to names inferred ...
(The tar program in its own does not compress; it just stores multiple files within one tape archive.) Files can be returned to their original state using uncompress. The usual action of uncompress is not merely to create an uncompressed copy of the file, but also to restore the timestamp and other attributes of the compressed file.
Per-file compression with gzip, bzip2, lzo, xz or lzma (as opposed to compressing the whole archive). An individual can choose not to compress already compressed files based on their filename suffix. Fast-extracting of files from anywhere in the archive; Fast listing of archive contents through saving the catalogue of files in the archive
bzip2 is a free and open-source file compression program that uses the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm.It only compresses single files and is not a file archiver.It relies on separate external utilities such as tar for tasks such as handling multiple files, and other tools for encryption, and archive splitting.