tar (computing)
| tar (software) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original author | Bell Laboratories | ||||||||||
| Developers | Various open-source and commercial developers | ||||||||||
| Initial release | January 1979 | ||||||||||
| Stable release(s) | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Written in | pdtar, star, Plan 9, GNU: C | ||||||||||
| Operating system | Unix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Microsoft Windows, IBM i | ||||||||||
| Platform | Cross-platform | ||||||||||
| Type | Command | ||||||||||
| License | BSD tar: BSD-2-Clause GNU tar: GPL-3.0-or-later pdtar: Public domain Plan 9: MIT star: CDDL-1.0 | ||||||||||
| Website | libarchive.org (BSD tar) gnu.org/software/tar (GNU tar) | ||||||||||
| Repository | github savannah | ||||||||||
| tar (file format) | |
|---|---|
| Filename extension | .tar |
| Internet media type | application/x-tar |
| Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) | public.tar-archive |
| Magic number | u s t a r \0 0 0 at byte offset 257 (for POSIX versions)
|
| Latest release | various various |
| Type of format | Archive file |
| Compression | None |
| Standard | POSIX since POSIX.1, presently in the definition of pax |
| Open format? | Yes |
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.
A tarball contains metadata for the contained files including the name, ownership, timestamps, permissions and directory organization. As a file containing other files with associated metadata, a tarball is useful for software distribution and backup.
POSIX abandoned tar in favor of pax, yet tar continues to have widespread use.