What is it?TAR (Tape Archive) is a file packaging format originating from Unix in the late 1970s. The name refers to its original purpose: archiving files to magnetic tape drives for backup. TAR bundles multiple files and directories into a single archive file while preserving file system metadata including file permissions, ownership, timestamps, hard links, and symbolic links - attributes that are essential in Unix and Linux environments but which ZIP archives do not reliably preserve.
A plain TAR file does not compress data - it only bundles files together, similar to how you might rubber-band a stack of papers. Compression is applied on top of the TAR archive using separate tools: gzip creates.tar.gz, bzip2 creates.tar.bz2, and xz creates.tar.xz. This separation of concerns (packaging vs. compression) is a Unix design philosophy. TAR archives are the universal distribution format for Linux software source code and system backups.