install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install gnu-tar

local Homebrew formula metadata

overview

Package summary

GNU version of the tar archiving utility

Project links

Commands and aliases

gtar

history

Project history and usage

GNU tar is the GNU archiving program for creating, listing, updating, and extracting tar archives. It is one of the package ecosystem's foundational tools because source releases, backups, and portable file bundles often travel as tar archives.

Project history

The GNU tar README says GNU tar is derived from John Gilmore's public-domain tar. The GNU tar manual credits John Gilmore as the original author, Jay Fenlason and Joy Kendall for GNU enhancements, and later maintenance by Thomas Bushnell, n/BSG, Francois Pinard, Paul Eggert, and Sergey Poznyakoff with many contributors.

GNU tar development also reflects the long evolution of archive formats and recovery needs. The manual notes that active development and maintenance resumed after the project was put on CVS at Savannah in July 2003, and it credits Sergey Poznyakoff with POSIX archive support.

Adoption history

tar began as a tape archiver, but GNU tar helped make tar archives a routine interchange format for free software. The GNU manual explicitly notes that the GNU Project distributes software bundled into tar archives so related files can move as a single unit, a practice that made tarballs central to source distribution and package building.

How it is used

Practitioners use GNU tar to create and extract source tarballs, preserve directory trees, list archive contents, append or update members, stream archives through pipes, and combine archiving with compression tools. System administrators also use GNU tar for full and incremental backups, including snapshot-file workflows with --listed-incremental.

Why package nerds care

GNU tar is package-nerd bedrock: release artifacts, distro build recipes, reproducible archives, vendor source bundles, and backup scripts all depend on tar behavior. Details such as pax headers, sparse files, compression integration, path handling, and incremental metadata are small options with large consequences for reproducibility and restore safety.

Timeline

1980s: GNU tar grew from John Gilmore's public-domain tar into a GNU-maintained archiver.
2003: GNU tar was put on CVS at Savannah and active maintenance resumed.
2021: Version 1.34 notes record extraction and permission-handling fixes.
2023: Version 1.35 notes include compatibility and backup-related fixes.
2026: Git NEWS for 1.35.90 describes reproducibility work, extraction safety fixes, and performance improvements.

Related projects

GNU tar is tightly related to gzip, bzip2, xz, cpio, rmt, POSIX pax archives, source-release tooling, and package-manager build systems.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 10 platform targets.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`gtar`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version1.35

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:gnu-tar
Version	1.35
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/gnu-tar
Homepage	https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/
Repository	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git
Upstream docs	https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Source archive	https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.35.tar.gz
Bottle	available (on arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared
Caveats	GNU "tar" has been installed as "gtar". If you need to use it as "tar", you can add a "gnubin" directory to your PATH from your bashrc like: PATH="$HOMEBREW_PREFIX/opt/gnu-tar/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	gnu-tar
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Head Version	HEAD
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	head stable

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/gnu-tar.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated package history
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install gnu-tar with Homebrew