GNU Tar
The GNU command-line tool for creating, extracting, updating and listing tar archives.
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1 more ways to get GNU Tar
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install gnu-tar
About GNU Tar
GNU Tar creates tar archives and works with existing ones: extracting files, adding files, updating members and listing contents. The name stands for tape archiver, but output can go to files, devices or other programs through pipes, and it can reach remote devices or files as archives.
It is the tar implementation found on most Linux systems and is typically combined with compressors such as gzip for .tar.gz files. Source releases are available from the GNU download server and its mirrors.
Strengths
- Standard tool on most Linux systems
- Works with pipes, devices and remote archives
- Can update and append to existing archives
Limitations
- Command-line only
- Handles tar archives, not formats like zip or 7z
- Options are numerous and can be hard to remember
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree software from the GNU Project.
- License
- GPL-3.0-or-later
- Developer
- GNU Project
- Platforms
- Linux, Command line
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Creating and unpacking tar archives from the shell or in scripts
- Categories
- Compression, CLI tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to GNU Tar
Compare allSoftware that can replace GNU Tar for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
bsdtar (libarchive)
Command-line archivers built on libarchive that read and write tar, zip, cpio, ISO and more.
bsdtar is a BSD-licensed tar built on libarchive that also reads zip, rar and ISO and runs on Windows, though some options differ from GNU tar.
ouch
Command-line tool that compresses and extracts archives without format-specific flags.
ouch is an MIT-licensed tool that creates and extracts tar, zip and compressed formats by file name without format-specific flags, but wraps only common formats.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
GNU Gzip
The GNU command-line compression program that creates and decompresses .gz files.
XZ Utils
The standard command-line tool for creating and reading .xz files.
Zstandard
Meta's compression tool that hits near-zlib ratios at far higher speed, now used across Linux and modern filesystems.
pigz
A parallel implementation of gzip that uses multiple CPU cores to compress data faster.
bzip2
A long-established command-line block-sorting compressor and library for .bz2 files.
p7zip
Command-line port of 7-Zip's compression tools for POSIX systems.
