TARBZ2

Tar.bz2 is a file format that combines a tar archive with bzip2 compression. The resulting file name usually ends with .tar.bz2, .tbz2, or occasionally .tbz. A tar archive stores multiple files and directories in a single archive, while preserving metadata such as permissions and timestamps. The bzip2 compressor then reduces the archive size.

How it works: tar first creates a .tar archive of the input files, preserving the directory hierarchy and metadata; then the bzip2 compressor reduces the archive. When using tar with the -j option, tar performs both steps in a single command. To extract, tar uses -x to unpack and -j to decompress; listing uses -t to display contents.

Common commands: creation: tar -cvjf archive.tar.bz2 somedir; extraction: tar -xvjf archive.tar.bz2; listing: tar -tvjf archive.tar.bz2. The -f option specifies the archive filename; -v shows progress. Variants like -cjf or -xjf may be used on some tar implementations.

Extensions and compatibility: tar.bz2 is common on Unix-like systems, including Linux and macOS. It is supported by many archive managers on Windows, such as 7-Zip and WinRAR, and can be used from Windows Subsystem for Linux. Compared with tar.gz, tar.bz2 generally offers a higher compression ratio at the cost of longer compression time; tar.xz can offer even higher ratios but with slower speeds.