TAR Converter
FileFlip converts TAR files into 10 other formats entirely inside your browser, using libarchive compiled to WebAssembly. The TAR file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. There is no file-size limit and no account to create.
How do I convert a TAR file?#
- Drop your TAR file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer.
- Choose the format you want out of it. FileFlip downloads the engine that conversion needs, once, and your browser caches it.
- Conversion starts the moment you pick the format, and the result is yours to download. The work happens in this tab, so nothing is uploaded and nothing is queued.
Is it safe to convert TAR files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts TAR files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What happens to a TAR file#
FileFlip converts TAR into 10 formats with libarchive, all of it inside the browser tab. Each conversion below names the engine it uses, what it downloads, and exactly what that conversion keeps or drops.
| Category | Archives |
|---|---|
| File extension | .tar |
| FileFlip support | Read and written |
| Conversions available | 10 |
| Engines | libarchive |
| Downloaded to your browser | 1.0 MB on the first conversion, then cached |
What is a TAR file?#
A TAR file concatenates files, directories and 512-byte headers recording each item's owner, permissions and modification time into one stream, a format Unix introduced in 1979 for writing straight to magnetic tape with no compression involved.
Use TAR when file ownership, permissions and symlinks have to survive the trip, which matters for backups and Unix software distribution and doesn't matter for a folder of photos.
Convert an uncompressed TAR to a compressed variant like TGZ or TXZ when the archive is being stored or transferred and its size actually matters.
The TAR file format reference covers the specification, the programs that open one, and what each conversion keeps or drops.
TAR questions people ask#
Why does TAR need a compressor like gzip?
TAR only concatenates files and their metadata into one stream; it was designed in 1979 to write straight to magnetic tape and never included compression at all. That's why a tarball is normally paired with gzip, bzip2 or xz, producing .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 or .tar.xz.
Why is a TAR file about the same size as the files inside it?
A TAR archive stores file data unmodified, padded out to 512-byte blocks, so it only adds a small amount of header overhead per file rather than shrinking anything. Compressing it separately with gzip or xz is what actually reduces the size.
Can I extract one file from a large TAR archive?
Yes, tar can extract a single named file, but it reads sequentially through the archive until it reaches that entry, since TAR has no index like ZIP's central directory. On an uncompressed tarball this is fast; on a compressed .tar.gz it means decompressing everything up to that point too.
Does TAR preserve file permissions?
Yes, that's one of TAR's defining features: each entry's header records the owner, group, permission bits and modification time, which is why Unix backup tools and package formats still build on it. Most non-Unix archive formats, including the base 7z format, don't keep this information.