TAR.Z Converter
Convert files to and from TAR.Z online for free. Fast, secure, and high-quality file conversion with no sign-up or software required.
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What is a tar.z file?
The tar.z extension (often shortened to .taz) denotes a TAR archive compressed using the legacy Unix compress utility. This format relies on the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) adaptive compression algorithm. Historically significant in early Unix System V environments, it predates the DEFLATE algorithm used in gzip. Due to the patent encumbrances on LZW (Unisys) in the 1990s and lower compression efficiency compared to modern standards, it is technically obsolete but remains in legacy repository archives.
How to open a tar.z file
While the format is deprecated, most Unix-like systems (Linux, BSD, macOS) retain backward compatibility via the uncompress utility or gunzip, which can detect and decompress LZW streams (command: zcat file.tar.z | tar -xvf -). On Windows, 7-Zip provides robust support for opening legacy Z-compressed archives, as does the multi-format archiver IzArc.
tar.z Technical Info
- Full Name
- Tape Archive + Unix Compress
- Developed By
- Spencer Thomas (LZW implementation)
- Initial Release
- 1984
- MIME Type
- application/x-compress
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