tarball: Definition?

[Nick Holland]

Ummm, a silly question: what is a tarball?

I know it is a bunch of files running around in a .tar file (my
knowledge of taring is limited, but quite servicable (I know when and
where to look for help) -- that's not the point of my question), but
is there more to it than that?

Is an application distributed with source where one does a 'make
config && make && make install' a tarball? (this was my original
guess)

Is a package a tarball?

Is (for example) game27.tgz a tarball?

Or is any collection of files, related or not, which are lumped
together in a .tar (or .tgz) file a tarball?

Or is this one of the many words in this business that means whatever
the writer ment it to mean at the moment they wrote it?

Nick.

--
http://www.holland-consulting.com/

[Wingate, Steve [IBM NON J&J]]

Just think of a tarball as the equivalent of a Windows Zip file, only
without compression. The 't' in *.tgz means it's tar'ed, or has several
files collected in a bunch. The 'gz' means it's been gzip'ed or compressed.
You can have one without the other, whereas a Windows Zip file is always
both a collection AND a compressed collection at that.

[Nick Holland]

Better clairify somthing, based on the responses I'm getting. 8)

I understand the purpose and use of tar...

I'm just curious if there is anything that makes a .tar file a tarball
other than the fact it was made with tar.

Or, is everything .tar (or more properly, put together with tar, as I
realize the .tar is just a convention) a tarball?

Nick.

Nick Holland wrote:
>
> Ummm, a silly question: what is a tarball?
>
> I know it is a bunch of files running around in a .tar file (my
> knowledge of taring is limited, but quite servicable (I know when and
> where to look for help) -- that's not the point of my question), but
> is there more to it than that?
>
> Is an application distributed with source where one does a 'make
> config && make && make install' a tarball? (this was my original
> guess)
>
> Is a package a tarball?
>
> Is (for example) game27.tgz a tarball?
>
> Or is any collection of files, related or not, which are lumped
> together in a .tar (or .tgz) file a tarball?
>
> Or is this one of the many words in this business that means whatever
> the writer ment it to mean at the moment they wrote it?
>
> Nick.
>
> --
> http://www.holland-consulting.com/

--
http://www.holland-consulting.com/

[Scott Ehrlich]

You will likely get mailbombed with responses, but let me add mine :-)

tarball = filename.tar, which contains stored (not compressed) files.

filename.tgz or filename.tar.gz = tarball compressed with GNU Zip.

If you are familiar with Zip, Tar is somewhat similar, but does not
compress (to the best of my knowledge), which is why gzip is added into
the equation.

Tarballs were initially created to permit storing files onto tapes (tar =
Tape ARchive).

Corrections to the above are welcome :-)

Scott

[Christian Weisgerber]

Nick Holland <nho...@home.com> wrote:

> Or, is everything .tar (or more properly, put together with tar, as I
> realize the .tar is just a convention) a tarball?

Yes.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de

[Roger Walkup]

Nick Holland wrote:

> Better clairify somthing, based on the responses I'm getting. 8)
>
> I understand the purpose and use of tar...
>
> I'm just curious if there is anything that makes a .tar file a tarball
> other than the fact it was made with tar.
>

> Or, is everything .tar (or more properly, put together with tar, as I
> realize the .tar is just a convention) a tarball?
>

yes

>
> Nick.

>
> Nick Holland wrote:
> >
> > Ummm, a silly question: what is a tarball?
> >
> > I know it is a bunch of files running around in a .tar file (my
> > knowledge of taring is limited, but quite servicable (I know when and
> > where to look for help) -- that's not the point of my question), but
> > is there more to it than that?
> >
> > Is an application distributed with source where one does a 'make
> > config && make && make install' a tarball? (this was my original
> > guess)
> >
> > Is a package a tarball?
> >
> > Is (for example) game27.tgz a tarball?
> >
> > Or is any collection of files, related or not, which are lumped
> > together in a .tar (or .tgz) file a tarball?
> >
> > Or is this one of the many words in this business that means whatever
> > the writer ment it to mean at the moment they wrote it?
> >
> > Nick.
> >
> > --
> > http://www.holland-consulting.com/
>

> --
> http://www.holland-consulting.com/

[Nick Holland]

Just a quick thanks to *all* those who helped clairify this for me,
both on and off-list.

THANKS! 8)

Nick.

Christian Weisgerber wrote:

>
> Nick Holland <nho...@home.com> wrote:
>
> > Or, is everything .tar (or more properly, put together with tar, as I
> > realize the .tar is just a convention) a tarball?
>

> Yes.
>
> --
> Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de

--
http://www.holland-consulting.com/