zip is better than tar.gz for some applications though.
notably, individual files can be read from a zip archive without unpacking the whole archive, different than tar.gz files.
tar.gz files are only better if you pack and unpack the whole archive at once, but even then, they don't have much advantage. the major advantage is that you can pipe the output of tar creation over the network to another computer who decompresses the tar immediately, thus transferring a folder. zip has index at beginning/start, so it requires seek when writing or skip when reading, so it can't be streamed.
One thing that I find useful is that you can do --filesync with an existing zip, which means it only updates the files if the date/size don't match. This saves a bunch of time on large archives that don't need to be created from scratch every time.
But afaik with many files in an archive a tar.gz manages higher compression ratios since each file isn't compressed individually. It probably isn't relevant unless archiving a large amount of data though.
Does .zip have other advantages though? I don't often need just one file from an archive anyway.
That’s definitely not going to happen. One of the few things Windows is doing right is backwards compatibility. Have 30 year old exe? It usually just runs fine. In my experience a lot of business logic relies on this compatibility. It would be stupid from a business standpoint to break this compatibility. It would upset a lot of paying customers.
But wait a second. I’m speaking about Microsoft. All we wanted was a Windows 7 with a modernized GUI. And we got Windows 10 with Cortana, multiple Control panels, redundant settings that contradicted each other. We got Windows 11 with ads everywhere, Copilot, enforced MS accounts and so on.
It would perfectly make sense to switch to Linux. They could fire a lot of devs. I’m sure they would save a lot of money for a couple of seconds.
Obviously they don’t give a shit about customers, so this sounds like a normal thing Microsoft could do for short term gains.
Not sure what the issue with zip files is? They're supported on basically every device and afaik are not a proprietary format or anything. Seems better to me than rar or 7z. Tar.gz is also fine, but * don't really see why one would care
33 replies
zip is better than tar.gz for some applications though.
notably, individual files can be read from a zip archive without unpacking the whole archive, different than tar.gz files.
tar.gz files are only better if you pack and unpack the whole archive at once, but even then, they don't have much advantage. the major advantage is that you can pipe the output of tar creation over the network to another computer who decompresses the tar immediately, thus transferring a folder. zip has index at beginning/start, so it requires seek when writing or skip when reading, so it can't be streamed.
One thing that I find useful is that you can do --filesync with an existing zip, which means it only updates the files if the date/size don't match. This saves a bunch of time on large archives that don't need to be created from scratch every time.
Where does 7z fit into all of this?
I think that also works like a zip
But afaik with many files in an archive a tar.gz manages higher compression ratios since each file isn't compressed individually. It probably isn't relevant unless archiving a large amount of data though.
Does .zip have other advantages though? I don't often need just one file from an archive anyway.
honestly most of the time if I'm sending an archive, my main goal is to bundle the files, not ideal compression. zip is the most compatible format
Sends tar.gz in return
Oddly, Windows can natively handle .tar.gz now. Found that out the other day.
Probably part of that Windows Subsystem for Linux
At what point is windows just gonna become Linux with a proprietary frontend.
That idea has been thrown around A LOT.
I don't think it'll ever happen tbh
That’s definitely not going to happen. One of the few things Windows is doing right is backwards compatibility. Have 30 year old exe? It usually just runs fine. In my experience a lot of business logic relies on this compatibility. It would be stupid from a business standpoint to break this compatibility. It would upset a lot of paying customers.
But wait a second. I’m speaking about Microsoft. All we wanted was a Windows 7 with a modernized GUI. And we got Windows 10 with Cortana, multiple Control panels, redundant settings that contradicted each other. We got Windows 11 with ads everywhere, Copilot, enforced MS accounts and so on.
It would perfectly make sense to switch to Linux. They could fire a lot of devs. I’m sure they would save a lot of money for a couple of seconds.
Obviously they don’t give a shit about customers, so this sounds like a normal thing Microsoft could do for short term gains.
What? No, keep it the same but keep on supplying security patches. The whole "modernized GUI" was what gave us the wonderful new GUI of Windows 8!
MS: you mean we can fire 95% of the windows devs, and nerds on the internet will just do the work for us?
MS: we love Linux now!
E: stonks 📈
They'd lose their moat overnight, not gonna happen
No, they just include libarchive in Windows
It also came with tar preinstalled in cmd for a while before supporting it in their GUI.
Yeah, but it's a two step process. You first unpack the gz, than unpack the tar
It can always be a weird self-extracting shell script.
I never trusted those
Just as long as it isn't a .rar.
Mm zips :3
I've had quite a few, cause a lot of mods for games come in zip files x3
see my comment above; it's way more efficient to read individual files out of a zip archive.
Not sure what the issue with zip files is? They're supported on basically every device and afaik are not a proprietary format or anything. Seems better to me than rar or 7z. Tar.gz is also fine, but * don't really see why one would care
I think it's a pun. What in tarnation
Bc Linux is a .tar nation?
Thanks, i didnt see that. Love it
Yep
What am I missing? What's wrong with zip? Should tar.gz be used instead?
Anti Commercial-AI license
Tar-nation.
Goddammit, that's a good one 🤣
Thanks!
Considering even Windows can open it without any third-party program, I would say it's quite useful.
A zip file? Thanks, that will fit in the trash bin quite nicely.