[clue] is tar deprecated? (talk)

[Dan Kulinski]

Tar allows you to concatenate files together.  Gzip allows you to compress a
single file (although there is support for concatenated gzip files).  .Tgz
is the operation of both of these.  A Zip file is structured in such a way
that it provides both the storage container and the compression at the same
time.  In fact if you explore a Zip file you will find that each file itself
will generally undergo different compressions.  However, there is a distinct
disadvantage to this, the compression can not take advantage of redundancy
in multiple files so the archives are not as compact.

Although now well understood, the Zip file format is not as open as the
.tar.gz file format.  It was originally designed by PKWARE and the
specifications were trademarked.

As far as file interchange goes, .zip is currently more universal as
Windows, Mac OS X and Linux generally have built in decompressors.  Mac OS X
and Linux can by default address TAR and GZIP files.

On UNIX and UNIX like systems I always tend to use tar and gzip together
because I know they exist on the systems.  Debian for instance usually
doesn't include the unzip utility by default.

Dan Kulinski

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 10:30 AM, Mike Bean <beandaemon at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our SQL guy asked me an interesting question, I didn't honestly have an
> answer, I thought it might be worthwhile to pose to the group.  He doesn't
> understand why .tgz is still in use.  To his mind, gzip renders the
> usefulness of tar questionable.  So why tar a file and THEN zip it, when you
> can just zip it???
>
> I honestly didn't know how to respond.  Any insights?
>
> Mike Bean
>
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