TAR.GZ file format
Gzip-compressed TAR archive
TAR.GZ (or .tgz) is a TAR bundle compressed with gzip. It's the standard archive on Linux and for source-code releases, but Windows users often find ZIP easier.
| Property | TAR.GZ |
|---|---|
| File extensions | .tar.gz, .tgz, .gz |
| MIME type | application/gzip |
| Introduced | 1992 by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler (gzip) |
| Compression method | DEFLATE (whole archive) |
| Password protection | No |
| Open source format | Yes |
| Built into Windows / macOS | macOS and Linux natively; Windows 10+ via tar command |
| Best for | Linux software, server backups |
What is a TAR.GZ file?
A .tar.gz file is created in two steps: TAR bundles the files, then gzip (released in 1992 by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler) compresses the whole bundle with DEFLATE. Compressing everything together usually beats ZIP's per-file compression, but you must decompress the archive to list or extract a single file.