What is a TAR File Type?
The TAR format was introduced with tar in 1979 to write data on tape drives, which were data storage devices that read and write data on magnetic tape. The name of the ART comes from Type archive ." and TAR archive .&.
In modern computing, the TAR format is used on Unix and Linux systems to group several files into a single file. They are especially useful for backing up files or transporting several files to another location.
You can also compress TAR files to reduce their size. Compressed TAR archives with GNU Zip compression can become GZ, .TAR.GZ, or .TGZ files. Often compressed archives with .tar.gz and .tgz file extensions are used to package software installers.
TAR files are often called " tarballs, " since they bring all types of files together into one file, similar to a sticky tarball archive.