gnu-tar ☆

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Description:
GNU version of the tar archiving utility

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: archive backup cli compression utilities

Install: brew install gnu-tar

About:
GNU Tar is a powerful command-line utility for creating and manipulating archive files, primarily tape archives. It can combine multiple files into a single archive file while preserving file system structure and permissions. Its main value is in efficient data backup and transfer, with robust support for compression and incremental backups.

Key Features:

Create and extract archive files (tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz)
Preserve file permissions, ownership, and timestamps
Incremental backups to save storage space
Append files to existing archives
Pipe-based integration with compression utilities

Use Cases:

System backups and data archival
Software source code distribution
File system migration and transfer

Alternatives:

bsdtar – Libarchive-based, often pre-installed on macOS, compatible with multiple formats
7zip – Cross-platform with higher compression ratios but less Unix-native

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 10, 2024 8:18am		0	VERSION_BUMP	63be8e6c
Sep 13, 2023 1:27pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	19fe129f