# TAR Viewer

Free online TAR viewer. Open .tar and .tgz archives in your browser to list and inspect contents — no upload, no extraction.

> Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/tar

- **Category:** Archives

- **Supported formats:** .tar, .tgz

## Overview

This TAR viewer reads archive contents directly in your browser. TAR (Tape ARchive) is the standard container format on Unix and Linux, originally designed for tape backups and now the backbone of source distributions (.tar.gz). Pick a sample or choose your own .tar / .tgz file to browse its file tree instantly, with no upload and no extraction software.

## When to use

- You received a .tar or .tar.gz download and want to inspect it without tar.
- You need a private preview of a source code distribution before extracting.
- You want to check a Linux package archive on a machine without tar installed.

## How it works

- Select a built-in sample archive or choose your own .tar / .tgz file.
- The viewer reads the archive's file table in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
- Browse the file list and inspect entry names and sizes.

## Use cases

- Inspecting open-source source distributions (.tar.gz).
- Checking Linux package archives.
- Previewing backup tarballs before restoring.

## Samples

- **Sample Archive**: A small TAR archive with text and JSON files for in-browser preview

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between .tar and .tgz?

TAR itself does not compress — it just bundles files together. .tgz (or .tar.gz) means the tar archive was additionally compressed with gzip. The viewer reads the uncompressed tar structure.

### Are my TAR files uploaded?

No. The archive stays on your device and is read locally in the browser. Only the public sample archive is requested from the server.

### Does TAR compress files?

No. TAR is an uncompressed container (a concatenation of files with headers). Compression is applied separately, producing .tar.gz / .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz and similar combined files.

## Related content

- [ZIP Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/zip): Open and preview ZIP archives (.zip, .zipx) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.
- [7Z Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/7z): Open and preview 7Z archives (.7z) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.
- [RAR Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/rar): Open and preview RAR archives (.rar, .cbr) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.
- [GZ Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/gz): Open and preview GZip archives (.gz, .gzip) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.
- [BZ2 Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/bz2): Open and preview BZip2 archives (.bz2, .bzip2, .tbz, .tbz2) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.
- [XZ Viewer](https://elysiatools.com/en/viewers/xz): Open and preview XZ archives (.xz, .txz) directly in your browser — list contents without uploading or extracting.