what is tar.bz2

[Westat1]

I am trying to download and open a file that has the extension of tar.bz2

What is it? I have a feeling it may be a MAC file. Any help?

[oilman]

[sources.redhat.com...]

[Westat1]

Thanks, I downloaded it and installed it but it wont open the file. It doesn't show up as "program" when I select open with. Only WinZip is there

[tschild]

If you downloaded the Windows executable from the page linked to in oilman's post, this is a command-line program. Just call it on the command line with option --help to see how it is invoked.

[Westat1]

OK Have no idea what you mean. How is it done?

[tschild]

Open the command-line window (menu icon should be something like a black computer screen with 'C:\' on it), use cd to go to the directory that you downloaded the executable to, then type

$executablename --help

($executablename being the file name that you stored b2zip under)

[Westat1]

Thanks I tried that and got an error that says the command is not right (internally or externaly) whatever that means.

I downloaded bzip2-102-x86-win32.exe to my desktop. I click on that file and a black box opens and closes very quickly. That is all that happens.

The file I want to open wont.

Thanks,

[grnidone]

What is it? I have a feeling it may be a MAC file. Any help?

The Unix command for compressing something is called 'tar' and the extension for compressed files is either tar or tar.bz2.

The term 'tar' came from putting 'tape archive' together into a cryptic command nobody but the Unix elite understand. The lingo for compressing a bunch of files together is: 'make a tarball'.

Example:

Oilman: "Hey G, Have you emailed me that file yet?"
Grnidone: "Not yet, Oil, I need to make a tarball first."

Macintosh users typically use a program called 'Stuffit' to compress their files, and the extension for that is either .sit or .hqx. They don't have any cool lingo for their compression program...that I know of.

What kind of program are you trying to use? Are you trying to open up a program (exectuable) file or an image/ non-program thing?

[littleman]

From the UNIX MAN pages...

bzip2, bunzip2 - a block-sorting file compressor

bzip2 compresses files using the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text
compression algorithm, and Huffman coding. Compression is generally
considerably better than that achieved by more conventional
LZ77/LZ78-based compressors, and approaches the performance of the PPM
family of statistical compressors.

Tar:

tar , an archiving pro-
gram designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as
a tarfile. A tarfile may be made on a tape drive, however, it is also
common to write a tarfile to a normal file. The first argument to tar
must be one of the options: Acdrtux, followed by any optional func-
tions. The final arguments to tar are the names of the files or direc-
tories which should be archived. The use of a directory name always
implies that the subdirectories below should be included in the
archive.

[Westat1]

thanks, it is a file I have downloaded and am trying to open it. It is a script a friend has sent me
<but is not at home to send it again so I can open it>

[TGecho]

I think WinRar can open tarballs - [rarlab.com...]
It acts a lot like winzip, so it should be pretty straightforward

[Westat1]

Thanks I downloaded that program, but it says there is nothing in the folder. I don't know if there is a way to attach the file here.

I tried it again, and it worked. Thanks for the help.