TGZ file extensions are a Gzipped TAR file, which is a compressed file archive commonly used with the UNIX operating system. TAR is a UNIX-based utility which is used for packaging multiple files into one folder. The original function of TAR was to function as a tape backup utility, but now files with the TAR extension are used with modern day archiving.
In order to understand the file extension TGZ, it helps to have some background on TAR files which originate from the MS-DOS operating system. MS-DOS was used prior to the inception of Windows and had a limit of three letters for the file extension. As a result, TAR files were commonly found with an extension of TAR.GZ, and the TGZ extension is an abbreviation for this file type.
A TAR utility is used to create the TAR file itself, which is also commonly referred to as a tarball. Therefore, you must use a software application to unpack and open TAR files. TGZ files are the compressed version of a TAR file and can contain multiple files of any type which are merged together as one large compressed archive.
How to Open TGZ Files
TGZ files can be opened using any compression utility program. If you already have a program installed, double click on the TGZ file to see if it will automatically open in a default compression utility program you have on your PC.
If you use Windows, you can open TGZ files with 7-Zip, WinRAR, or Smith Micro Stuffit Deluxe 2010. Other programs such as Corel WinZip Pro and Zipeg will also open TGZ files in Windows.
For Mac OS X, you can open TGZ files using Dare to be Creative Archiver or Smith Micro Stuffit Deluxe 2011. Zipeg free file opener will also open TGZ files on a Mac PC.
If you use the Linux operating system, you can open TGZ files using Tar, which is designed to create a TAR archive and will open files that contain the extension TGZ. Tar is part of the GNU project and is an open source application available as a free download from the GNU website. You can also use Gunzip or Pkgtool, which will open TGZ files on the Linux operating system.
TGZ files can be opened using the shell prompt for UNIX and Linux to run tar –ztvf on the archive file. The files can also be viewed by using a decompression utility program such as Gunzip mentioned above and then extracting the TGZ file contents using tar –xf. This will return the files to their original TAR file structure prior to compressing the file as a TGZ file.
