Live briefing
Everything about Tar (computing)
File format and file archiver program
tar is a file format and a file archiver program. The program combines multiple files into a single archive file in the tar file format. It was originally developed for magnetic tape computer storage – reading and writing data for a sequential I/O device with no file system, and the name is short for the format description "tape archive". When stored in a file system, a file that tar reads and writes is often called a tarball. Wikipedia →
🧠Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Tar (computing)A 5-minute orientation
- Pick up a classic book: The Man in the Cat-Hair SuitThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Commentary—The “Tar Baby” of Computing: Performance AnalysisCited 0 times
- Go sideways: CpioA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Pax (command)A closely related topic
đź“– Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
đź“š Books worth reading
The Man in the Cat-Hair SuitWilliam R. Greene · 2011
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
đź”— Related topics
- Cpio cpio is a general file archiver utility and its associated file format. It is primarily installed on Unix-like computer operating systems. The software…
- Pax (command) pax is an archiving utility available for various operating systems and defined since 1995. Rather than sort out the incompatible options that have crept…
- Gzip gzip is a file format and a file compression program. The program uses the Deflate algorithm to compress and decompress a single file using the gzip file…
- Ar (Unix) ar, short for archiver, is a shell command for maintaining multiple files as a single archive file (i.e. a file archiver). It is often used to create and…
- Ls ls is a shell command for listing files – including special files such as directories. Originally developed for Unix and later codified by POSIX and Single…
- Lzip lzip is a free, command-line tool for the compression of data; it employs the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) with a user interface that is familiar…
- XZ Utils XZ Utils (previously LZMA Utils) is a set of free-software command-line lossless data compressors, including the programs lzma and xz, for Unix-like operating…
- Cat (Unix) cat is a shell command for writing the content of a file or input stream to standard output. The name is an abbreviation of catenate, a variant form of…