TAR.Z (TZ) to TGZ (TAR.GZ) Converter
Convert your tar.z files to tgz online & free
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How to convert TAR.Z to TGZ
Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.
Choose tgz or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)
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About formats
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.
TGZ (also written as .tar.gz) is the most widely used compound archive format on Unix-like systems, combining TAR) archiving with gzip compression. Gzip was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler, first released on October 31, 1992 as a free, patent-unencumbered replacement for the Unix compress utility. The TAR layer bundles files with full Unix metadata (permissions, ownership, timestamps, symlinks, hard links) into a single sequential stream, and gzip compresses it using the Deflate algorithm — a combination of LZ77 dictionary matching and Huffman coding. The resulting .tar.gz or .tgz file is the standard format for distributing source code, creating system backups, and packaging software on Linux and Unix platforms. One advantage is near-universal support — TGZ files can be created and extracted on every Unix system, Windows (via 7-Zip, WinRAR), and macOS natively, making it the safest choice when the recipient's platform is unknown. Fast decompression is another practical strength: gzip extraction is significantly faster than bzip2 or xz, important for CI/CD pipelines, container image layers, and automated deployments where extraction time matters. GNU tar supports TGZ natively with the -z flag, and the format serves as the basis for many higher-level packaging systems. While XZ offers better compression ratios, TGZ remains the default choice when broad compatibility and extraction speed are priorities.