.tar the filename extension conventionally used on files created by the tar (tape archiver) command. An ""archive"" contains the contents of one or more files along with the names, owership, permissions (mode) and other metadata associated with it. tar is one of the two oldest archiving utilities used under UNIX, the other is called cpio. The tar format is by far the most common archiving format for the distribution of UNIX and Linux programs and source code.

Linux systems generally use the GNU tar command to create and read .tar files. A popular, and possibly superior alternative is Jörg Schilling's star. Also GNU cpio and the pax commands are capable of reading .tar commands (and often can read even damaged .tar files which GNU tar will refuse to do)

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• () JimDennis - 23 Sep 2003
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