TAR Creator
Bundle up to 20 files into a TAR archive with our TAR Creator, either as a plain .tar or compressed as a .tar.gz. File names of up to 100 bytes are kept, every entry carries standard permissions and the current date, and the result opens with tar on Linux and macOS as well as with 7-Zip on Windows. A quick way for developers and administrators to prepare files for servers, containers and backups.
Frequently asked questions
How do I create a TAR archive?
Add your files, choose TAR or TAR.GZ as the format and click Create TAR. The archive is built at once and offered as a download.
What is the difference between TAR and TAR.GZ?
A TAR file bundles files without compressing them, so it is as large as the files together. TAR.GZ, also called a tarball or .tgz, is the same TAR compressed with GZIP and is usually much smaller for text and code.
How many files can I add?
You can add up to 20 files, each at most 10 MB and all together at most 25 MB. The files are stored in the order you add them, the first file first.
Which permissions and owners do the entries get?
Every file is stored with mode 644, readable by everyone and writable by its owner, with user and group ID 0. When unpacked as a normal user, tar assigns the files to that user.
Which TAR format is written?
The tool writes POSIX USTAR archives, the format GNU tar, BSD tar and 7-Zip all read. Names are stored in UTF-8 and the archive ends with the standard end-of-archive blocks.
How long can file names be?
USTAR allows a name of up to 100 bytes plus a folder prefix of up to 155 bytes. A single file name longer than 100 bytes cannot be stored and is refused with a message, so shorten it before uploading.
What happens when two files share a name?
A repeated name gets a number before its extension, such as notes (2).txt. Both files end up in the archive, and neither overwrites the other on extraction.
How do I unpack the archive on my computer?
On Linux and macOS run tar -xf archive.tar or tar -xzf archive.tar.gz in a terminal, or double-click it in the file manager. On Windows, 7-Zip and recent versions of Windows Explorer open both formats.
Which compression level does TAR.GZ use?
TAR.GZ output is compressed with GZIP at level 6, the same default the gzip command uses. It balances archive size and speed well for text, code and mixed files.
Are my files kept after the archive is built?
No. The archive is assembled in memory for this request and returned directly. Nothing is written to storage on the server.