Tar
<file format> ("Tape ARchive", following
ar)
Unix's general purpose
archive utility and the file format it uses. Tar was originally intended for use with
magnetic tape but, though it has several command line options related to tape, it is now used more often for packaging files together on other media, e.g. for distribution via the
Internet.
The resulting archive, a "tar file" (humourously, "tarball") is often compressed, using
gzip or some other form of compression (see
tar and feather).
There is a
GNU version of tar called gnutar with several improvements over the standard versions.
Filename extension: .tar
MIME type: unregistered, but commonly application/x-tar
Unix manual page: tar(1).
Compare
shar,
zip.
