What is a TGZ file
The Gzipped Tar File (TGZ) file extension can best be explained by calling it similar to a traditional zip file. However, this type of file extension has the ability to handle files that are much larger than standard zip functionality will allow. These are also sometimes known as gzip files. Because of their origination, TGZ files can easily be handled and extracted when you are using a Mac or Linux operating system. However, Windows does not have the ability to handle TGZ files without some help. On a Windows computer, you will either have to convert the TGZ file or install an app on your PC.
The TGZ file format was originally created by both Mark Adler and Jean Loup Gailly in the early 1990’s. It was specifically created for use on the GNU project. The most recent update took place in June of 2013. The file format and associated software application was developed to allow for file compression and decompression of files that are very large. While similar to commonly used zipped files, a TGZ extension can handle files that are much larger. Another difference is that zipped files can include multiple files in their compression, while a TGZ is just the compression of a single file that is very large.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open TGZ documents:
- Smith Micro Stuffit Deluxe 2010 (Windows, Mac)
- WinRAR 5 (Windows)
- Corel WinZip 18.5 (Windows)
- 7-Zip (Windows)
- Zipeg (Windows, Mac)
- Incredible Bee Archiver (Mac)
- Tar (Linux)
- Gunzip (Linux)
- Pkgtool (Linux)
