What Is a TAR GZ File and How to Open It
A Tar file is an archive that consists of multiple files put into one, while GZ is a compressed file format. Thus, combining TAR and GZ into a TAR.GZ provides you with a compressed archive. A user-friendly way to extract files from a .tar.gz archive is via a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Opening Tar.gz Files on macOS Is Easy
Compressing and extracting these files, however, isn’t always intuitive. This article provides detailed guides to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux and Windows, as well as a few helpful tips and tricks. You can notice in the above image that the archive files are extracted in the same working directory. This compression is lossless – that means no data is lost during the compression process, and the original files can be fully restored upon extraction.
tar: Unrecognized archive format
However, there are some pretty major differences when it comes to accessing data within the files and the compression efficiency. On the other hand, Windows users can rely on third-party file archiver tools like 7-zip or WinRAR to effortlessly extract files. In Linux, users have multiple ways to extract .tar.gz files – through the terminal and graphical file archivers. TAR was developed for Unix as early as 1979 and GZ later in 1992. Being a native file format, it’s highly compatible and easy to use on those operating systems.
- TAR was developed for Unix as early as 1979 and GZ later in 1992.
- A TAR.GZ file is a combination of two different packaging algorithms.
- After reading this article, you know how to extract or unzip .tar.gz file in Linux using different methods and tools.
- It’s often useful to list the contents of a .tar.gz file without having to unzip the entire archive.
- Once you’ve selected the right file, you’ll see «7-Zip File Manager» show up in the select app dialog.
But it does not compress the data, which results in a larger file size compared to compressed formats. Here you should replace the filename with the actual name of the file in question. You also need to be in the directory containing the tar.gz file, like with most terminal commands in Linux. It is useful to note that tar doesn’t compress the files in question, only packages them. Indeed, sometimes the resulting tarball can be of greater size due to padding. The FileInfo.com team has independently researched the Compressed Tarball file format and Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android ethereum wakes up as chinese institution hops on the crypto bus apps listed on this page.
The easiest method on all platforms would be to use an online extraction tool. Such a utility works across platforms anywhere, saving you the hassle of figuring out the right way to extract a tar.gz file. If you are into coding or just downloading a package from Github, you may come across the TAR.GZ file extension.
While slightly different, they are quite lightweight and offer a much simpler alternative to using the command line. If you want to keep the original file after compression, there are two options. The first is the -k option, and the other uses the -c option to output the compressed file to a different file, preserving the original. You can easily unzip the resulting .tar.gz file with the decompress (-d) option. You can also use The Unarchiver, which is a free tool for managing archives, functions just like the Archive Utility, and supports .rar files as well.
Our goal is 100% accuracy and we only publish information about file types that we have verified. Alternatively, select Extract files to pick where to extract the files. For a more GUI-friendly approach to extracting .tar.gz files, use 7-Zip. It usually doesn’t come preinstalled in older Windows systems. However, newer versions (starting from Windows 10) have it preinstalled.
Are Tar.GZ files safe?
To access the Windows command line, search for “command prompt” or “cmd” in the search bar. Right-click the first result and select the “Run as administrator” option. You may also be interested in learning about the best WinZip alternatives to compress files. Gzip compression reduces the overall file size, which makes it more efficient for distribution, backup, and storage purposes. It just bundles files & directories together while preserving their file structure and metadata. This means it takes all natural language processing specialization deeplearning ai the specified files and puts them together into one container.
Compressed Tarball File
Tar.gz has become the standard format used for distributing Linux and open source software since it’s easy to extract on basically any platform that isn’t Windows. An advantage of this method is that it can be used on any operating system, whether Windows or Mac, without worrying about native support. WinZip allows you to convert any TAR GZ file into a ZIP file.
However, there are also many third-party tools you can install for a more user-friendly experience. Technical details aside, all you need to remember is that .zip files are more accessible but less space-efficient, while .tar files are less accessible but more space-efficient. As a result, one isn’t necessarily better than the other — it’s all a matter of application. From videos to entire software packages, many files are compressed and stored using the .tar.gz format. While extracting a .tar.gz file isn’t quite as easy as unzipping a .zip, it’s still pretty straightforward. Tar has been supported since then on almost every platform outside of Windows.
You can easily extract .tar.gz files using third-party tools like 7 zip and Winrar on the Windows system. When the archive is extracted, these attributes are restored. That means they maintain their original characteristics. This format is common in the Unix/Linux world and is widely used to create compressed archives.
Since .tar.gz compresses multiple files all at once, it can take advantage of similarities between individual files to save on space. Generally speaking, a collection of files archived and compressed as a .tar.gz are more space-efficient (i.e., smaller) than the same collection compressed as a .zip. Instead of downloading a specific application to your computer or leveraging its built-in abilities, you can extract your tar.gz archive using an online app. Many websites allow you to extract all kinds of compressed files, including ZIP and TAR files. In short, a TAR file creates one archive file out of multiple files without compressing them, while the GZ file format compresses a file without creating an archive. Combined into the tar GZ file extension, you can archive and compress multiple files into one.
The easiest way to open a tar.gz file on Windows is to install an excellent free utility called 7-Zip, which can handle tar.gz and just about any other file format. We’ve been recommending this app for years, and it’s one of the first things that we install whenever reinstalling Windows. Mac users can also use this command to extract their tar.gz files, though they also have access to a GUI-based method we will discuss in the next section. Since Windows doesn’t natively support tar.gz files, you need a third-party tool to open them for you.
However, while tools like 7-Zip are free, many more “robust” solutions are only available for a price after a trial period. As a result, we recommend sticking to free (but trustworthy) tools or simply using the command line. Otherwise, keep reading to learn how to unzip .tar.gz files in Linux, macOS, and Windows. For those that don’t like using a terminal, you’ll be delighted to hear that macOS can open tar and tar.gz files by default with the Archive Utility. Just replace the -x with a -c to «Create,» though I find it easier to remember by «Compress,» even though that’s -z’s job. It also integrates with the Windows Explorer context menu, which enables users to create and extract archives directly from the right-click menu.
How to «Unzip» or Extract a Tar.gz File on Windows
You can open most .tar.gz files using the tar command built in to Linux, macOS, and Windows 10. If you’re not comfortable with the deserialize json to object in python terminal or command line, third-party tools such as 7-Zip offer a more user-friendly alternative. Like the tar utility, gzip also allows you to zip and unzip multiple files or entire directories at a time. It’s often useful to list the contents of a .tar.gz file without having to unzip the entire archive. For sending and storing, both .zip and .tar.gz files allows you to send relatively large packages as a single file.
