[BozemanLUG] tar vs compression

[Scott Dowdle]

Greetings,

----- Original Message -----
> So, does tar itself actually do any form of compression?

No, tar itself doesn't do compression but it works in conjunction with various compression libraries.

-J is for xz
-z is for gzip
-j is for bzip2

You can use those flags when creating or extracting... so you don't have to do a two step process (untar and uncompress) if you don't want to.

> If tar does not do any type of compression, why would a person want
> to use tar in conjunction with a compression protocol? What would I
> be trying to achieve by combining a compressed file with tar?

tar's claim to fame is that it maintains archival attributes and is good for backups.  You have to remember that tar was originally made for use with backup tapes.

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
704 Church Street
Belgrade, MT 59714
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