TBZ2 File Format (.tbz2)
A TBZ2 file is a TAR archive compressed as one continuous bzip2 stream under a single extension, so unlike ZIP, extracting one file means decompressing everything that comes before it in the archive.
TBZ2 at a glance#
| Full name | bzip2 compressed tarball |
|---|---|
| File extension | .tbz2 |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME types | application/x-bzip-compressed-tar |
| Other extensions | .tar.bz2.tbz |
| Compression | Lossless |
| FileFlip support | FileFlip reads and writes this format |
What a .tbz2 file can hold#
These are the things a TBZ2 file either supports or does not, and they are what decides whether a conversion keeps everything or quietly drops something.
| Embedded metadata | Yes |
|---|---|
| Streaming | Yes |
Strengths and limitations of TBZ2#
What TBZ2 does well
- Tighter compression than TGZ on the same files, at the cost of slower compression time
Where TBZ2 falls short
- Same solid-stream tradeoff as any tar-plus-compressor pairing: pulling one file out still means decompressing everything before it
- bzip2 compression is CPU-heavy enough that building a tbz2 from a large tree noticeably lags behind tar plus gzip
Use TBZ2 when a tarball needs to be smaller than TGZ makes it and the slower compression time is acceptable.
Convert TBZ2 to TXZ for a smaller result still, or to TGZ when speed matters more than size.
How to open a .tbz2 file#
A .tbz2 file opens in the programs below, grouped by the platform you are on. If you would rather not install anything, FileFlip converts TBZ2 into a format your machine already opens, and it does it in the browser tab rather than on a server.
| Platform | Programs that open it |
|---|---|
| Windows | 7-Zip, WinRAR |
| macOS | Archive Utility |
| Linux | Archive Manager (File Roller), tar (terminal) |
| Web | FileFlip |
TBZ2 questions people ask#
What's the difference between .tar.bz2 and .tbz2?
Nothing; TBZ2 is a tar archive compressed with bzip2, identical in content to a file named .tar.bz2, with tbz2 just the shortened single-extension spelling.
Is a TBZ2 smaller than a TGZ of the same files?
Usually yes. bzip2 typically compresses tighter than gzip, so a TBZ2 archive of the same directory is often smaller than the equivalent TGZ, at the cost of taking longer to create.
Why would I pick TBZ2 over TXZ?
TBZ2 compresses faster than TXZ for a similar amount of size reduction, since bzip2's block-based compression is lighter on CPU than xz's LZMA2. If squeezing out the smallest possible file matters more than compression time, TXZ usually wins instead.
Converting TBZ2 files#
Convert TBZ2 to another format
Convert another format to TBZ2
Every conversion runs inside your browser. The file is read from your disk, the work happens on your own machine, and nothing is uploaded. How FileFlip works names the engine behind each family and how to verify that for yourself.