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bsdtar (libarchive) vs GNU Tar: catalog facts
bsdtar (libarchive)	GNU Tar
Free Free and open source with no paid tier.	Free Free software from the GNU Project.
Windows, Linux, Command line	Linux, Command line
One tool reads many formats, including zip, rar and ISO Automatic format and compression detection	Standard tool on most Linux systems Works with pipes, devices and remote archives
Writes fewer formats than it reads; rar is read-only Command-line only	Command-line only Handles tar archives, not formats like zip or 7z
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-2-Clause	License: GPL-3.0-or-later
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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