Difference Between GZIP and TAR

GZIP and TAR are two independent tools that serve different purposes but are widely used together to create compressed archive files on Unix and Linux systems. GZIP is a common compression technique and file format for compressing individual files. The TAR (Tape Archive) file archiving program is widely used on Unix and Linux systems

Read this article to find out more about GZIP and TAR and how they are different from each other

What is GZIP?

GZIP is a common compression technique and file format for compressing individual files. It is commonly used in Unix and Linux systems, and its name stands for GNU Zip, indicating its open-source nature. Let's dive more into GZIP:

Compression Algorithm

GZIP uses the DEFLATE compression technique, a combination of LZ77 (Lempel-Ziv 77) and Huffman coding. LZ77 replaces repetitive data strings with references, whereas Huffman coding assigns shorter codes to frequently occurring data patterns. GZIP substantially decreases the size of a file without losing any data by using these strategies

Compression Ratio

GZIP's compression ratio depends on the content of the file being compressed. Text-based files, such as plain text documents or source code files, can frequently be compressed greatly, resulting in a decreased file size. However, because of their already optimized forms, files that are already compressed, such as multimedia files (JPEG, MP3, etc.), may not obtain significant compression.

File Format

When you compress a file with GZIP, it creates a compressed version with the ".gz" extension. A header in the GZIP file format comprises metadata such as the original file name, modification time, and compression method. During decompression, this information is used to restore the file to its original state.

Compression Level

GZIP offers many compression levels, which determine the trade-off between compression ratio and compression speed. Compression levels range from 1 to 9, with 1 indicating faster compression with a lower compression ratio and 9 indicating slower compression with a greater compression ratio. The compression level chosen is determined by the precise needs of the compression task, such as the target file size reduction and the computational resources available

What is TAR?

The TAR (Tape Archive) file archiving program is widely used on Unix and Linux systems. It is designed to combine numerous files and directories into a single archive file, which is referred to as a "tarball." Let's take a closer look at TAR:

Archiving Format

TAR creates an archive that retains the original files' and directories' file structure, permissions, timestamps, and other metadata. Unlike GZIP and other compression methods, TAR does not execute compression on its own. It generates an uncompressed archive while preserving the original data's integrity

Archive Structure

A TAR archive consists of a series of file entries. Each file entry in the archive represents a file or directory and contains information such as the file name, file size, permissions, ownership, timestamps, and other features. The entries are saved in the TAR file in consecutive order

File Naming

TAR archives are commonly named ".tar" by convention. For instance, "archive.tar" denotes a TAR archive. TAR archives can be compressed using external compression tools such as GZIP, resulting in a compressed TAR archive with extensions such as ".tar.gz" or ".tgz".

Difference between GZIP and TAR

The following table highlights the major differences between GZIP and TAR:

Characteristics	GZIP	TAR
Compression Level	Offers different compression levels	N/A
Usage	File compression, HTTP compression	File backup, software distribution
Preservation	Modifies file, lossless compression	Preserves file structure and metadata
File Extension	.gz	.tar
Algorithm	DEFLATE	N/A (No compression algorithm)
Function	Compression algorithm and file format	Archiving utility
Compression	Compresses individual files	Does not perform compression itself
Extraction	Decompression using gunzip command	Extraction using tar command

Conclusion

In conclusion, GZIP is used to compress individual files, whereas TAR is used to combine numerous files and directories into a single archive. They are frequently used together to create compressed archive files, often with the ".tar.gz" extension.