JAR to TAR.Z (TZ) Converter
Convert your jar files to tar.z online & free
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How to convert JAR to TAR.Z
Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.
Choose tar.z or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)
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About formats
JAR (Java Archive) is a package file format based on ZIP, developed by Sun Microsystems) and introduced with JDK 1.1 in January 1996 for distributing Java class files, associated metadata, and resources as a single deployable unit. A JAR file is structurally a ZIP archive with an added META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file — a text manifest that declares the archive's main class entry point, classpath dependencies, package versioning, and digital signature information. The Java runtime loads classes directly from JAR files without extraction, using the ZIP directory for efficient random access to individual entries. JAR archives can be made executable: specifying a Main-Class attribute in the manifest allows launching the application with a simple java -jar command. The format supports code signing through the JDK's jarsigner tool, embedding digital signatures that verify the authenticity and integrity of the archive's contents. One advantage is the Java ecosystem's native integration — the JVM, build tools (Maven, Gradle), application servers, and IDEs all treat JAR files as first-class artifacts, enabling a unified build-deploy-run pipeline. The format's backward compatibility with standard ZIP) tools is another practical strength: any ZIP utility can inspect JAR contents, while the manifest and signing layers add Java-specific capabilities on top. JAR remains the fundamental distribution unit for Java libraries and applications across enterprise, mobile, and embedded deployments.
TAR.Z is a compound archive format combining TAR) archiving with Unix compress, one of the earliest general-purpose data compression tools available on Unix systems. The compress utility, originally written by Spencer Thomas, Joe Orost, and others around 1985, implements adaptive LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression — a dictionary-based algorithm that builds a translation table during compression and decompression. The TAR layer bundles files with full Unix metadata into a single stream, and compress reduces the stream size typically by 40-60%. TAR.Z was the standard compressed archive format on Unix systems throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, before gzip emerged as a patent-free replacement. The LZW algorithm used by compress) was subject to patent claims by Unisys (holders of the LZW patent through Sperry), which motivated the development of gzip as an unencumbered alternative. One advantage is universal legacy compatibility — TAR.Z files can be extracted on any Unix system, including very old installations where newer compression tools may not be available. The format's historical ubiquity means that decades of archived software, documentation, and system backups exist as TAR.Z files. While TAR.GZ and TAR.XZ have replaced TAR.Z for new archives, the uncompress/zcat tools remain standard on all Unix-like systems, ensuring continued accessibility of legacy archives.