Open TAR files on Mac
To open a TAR on Mac, use the built-in tar command to list or extract it, or open it in Kernir to browse its entries. TAR packages files and folders together; an ordinary .tar does not compress their data. Kernir can both read and write TAR.
Check the full extension
Project.tar and Project.tar.gz are related but different files. The first is an archive; the second is a TAR compressed with gzip. The same distinction applies to TAR.BZ2 and TAR.XZ.
A TAR can preserve a directory tree and include links as well as ordinary documents. It is often useful when exchanging a source tree or collecting files with Unix metadata. Extracting that tree is not the same as installing or running the software it contains.
Look before extracting
Open Terminal and move to the directory holding the archive. For a TAR in Downloads:
cd ~/Downloads
tar -tf "Project.tar"
Replace the example name with yours. The -t operation lists the archive; -f identifies the file to read. Use the listing to see whether it has one outer folder or many items at the top level. macOS uses a libarchive-based tar; its supported formats extend beyond TAR.
Extract into a new folder
Create an empty destination, then extract:
mkdir "TAR output"
tar -xvf "Project.tar" -C "TAR output"
Choose another folder name if it already exists. -x extracts, -v prints the paths being processed, and -C selects the directory. Existing matching paths can be replaced, so an empty destination keeps the result separate from your work.
Keep the relative folder structure when the files refer to each other. A project that expects images/logo.png next to its documents may stop working if you flatten all its files into one directory. Review the command's errors as well as the files you can see: a partially extracted tree is not a complete result.
Create a TAR
From the directory containing a folder named Project, choose a new output name:
tar -cf "Project-copy.tar" "Project"
tar -tf "Project-copy.tar"
Keep the output outside the folder being archived. The second command checks the layout, including the outer Project folder. TAR alone will not necessarily make the collection smaller. For gzip compression, use the TAR.GZ guide.
Browse or edit in Kernir
The Mac download is coming soon. You can view the source and build instructions on GitHub. These steps describe the current app workflow.
Choose File › Open… (⌘O), select the TAR, then browse its folders. Select entries and use File › Extract… (⌘E) to copy them out. Kernir also lets you add or remove entries and save the TAR. Use File › Save As… (⇧⌘S) with a new filename if you want to preserve an unchanged original.
TAR is not a password-protected output format in Kernir. Saving an encrypted ZIP as TAR does not preserve the ZIP's encryption. Also check any metadata your workflow depends on: exchanging documents is a different requirement from reproducing every property of a filesystem backup.
To try a small file with known contents, use the sample archive library. Substitute the downloaded sample's filename in the commands above.
Kernir.dmg, signed and notarized. Requires macOS 14 or later.
Related guides
App steps were checked against Kernir source code. Command examples were checked with test archives on Linux using libarchive and the named utilities, not in a new macOS session. Updated .
