What is a dot tar file?

A .tar file is a type of archive file format commonly used to bundle multiple files and directories into a single file.

Understanding .tar Files

A tar file, also known as a tape archive file, is a type of file format used in UNIX systems to compress multiple files or subdirectory structures into a single file with the extension ". tar". This makes it convenient to handle a collection of files as a single unit.

Think of it like putting several documents and folders into a single box for easier moving or storage. The .tar format is the standard way to create these "boxes" on UNIX-like operating systems.

Key Characteristics

• Archiving: The primary function is to combine multiple files and directories into one stream or file. It doesn't inherently compress the data within the files, though it often makes subsequent compression (like with gzip or bzip2) more efficient.
• Extension: Files created using the tar utility typically have the .tar file extension.
• Origin: It originated in the days of magnetic tape storage (hence "tape archive") for sequentially writing data, but it is now widely used for disk-based archiving.
• Platform: While most strongly associated with UNIX and Linux, utilities exist to create and extract .tar files on other operating systems, including Windows and macOS.

Common Uses

.tar files are commonly used for:

• Packaging Software: It is often used for packaging and distributing installation software or updates for UNIX systems. Developers might bundle source code or compiled binaries this way.
• Backups: Creating archive copies of directories and files.
• Data Transfer: Sending a collection of files over a network as a single entity.

Working with .tar Files

To create, list, or extract files from a .tar archive, you typically use the tar command-line utility on UNIX-like systems.

• Creating an archive: tar -cvf archive.tar /path/to/files
• Listing contents: tar -tvf archive.tar
• Extracting files: tar -xvf archive.tar

Often, .tar files are compressed further using compression tools like gzip or bzip2, resulting in files like .tar.gz (or .tgz) or .tar.bz2. These compressed archives are smaller and more efficient for storage and transfer.

In essence, a .tar file is the container that holds the combined files and directories, while subsequent compression reduces the container's size.