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Sample TAR.GZ Download — Free Gzip Tarball Test Files

Download free gzip sample files in tar.gz format — 100KB to 100MB with exact sizes. Use these tarball test files to verify extraction on Windows, Mac, and Linux, test CI/CD deployment pipelines, and benchmark gzip decompression. TAR.GZ is the default archive format for source code distribution, deployment packages, backups, and Docker layers.

sample-100kb.tar.gz

101 KB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-100kb.tar.gz
Exact size
102,949 bytes
Displayed size
101 KB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
be0666300e51202a0dcbaa2ac0cfd029e3c8ce02847071c87427c64874bcb87b
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-100kb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-500kb.tar.gz

501 KB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-500kb.tar.gz
Exact size
513,357 bytes
Displayed size
501 KB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
83a79650a219071df36f7d1376e7c0b9a169a10d129c8d76164c1c92b5f9ed9c
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-500kb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-1mb.tar.gz

1.00 MB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-1mb.tar.gz
Exact size
1,050,136 bytes
Displayed size
1.00 MB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
37b63fcd658b1ccdcb0a579a325c4b1998a9ef9d9aee1c811afb8d93c2b36bdc
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-1mb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-5mb.tar.gz

5.00 MB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-5mb.tar.gz
Exact size
5,245,688 bytes
Displayed size
5.00 MB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
7c7cc3fcceaa5e7e6d952508a7a08845cb2cdadef48982ae4aacffb7f404675c
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-5mb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-10mb.tar.gz

10.00 MB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-10mb.tar.gz
Exact size
10,490,180 bytes
Displayed size
10.00 MB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
ed7b25e22d3fc56ecaf55b2395c71515bf1c65690524e5137a9e3e0d95167ef1
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-10mb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-50mb.tar.gz

50.02 MB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-50mb.tar.gz
Exact size
52,446,031 bytes
Displayed size
50.02 MB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
5d587053115a859a3508eb6687a537f1d56e363138564e6ca964a0e1ad031563
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-50mb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

sample-100mb.tar.gz

100 MB
Download
File details and verification
Filename
sample-100mb.tar.gz
Exact size
104,890,826 bytes
Displayed size
100 MB
Catalog status
Valid catalog fixture
SHA-256
01fb86e081b85ce2f88c66e7ed07023543aae404a26afab2c614e59718598cc7
Header signature
Matched (gzip)
Verified on
2026-08-10
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://cdn.truefilesize.com/tar-gz/sample-100mb.tar.gz

See how TrueFileSize generates and measures sample files, or review the editorial policy.

Use cases for sample tar.gz files

  • Testing tarball extraction in CI/CD deployment pipelines
  • Verifying tar.gz upload handling in web applications
  • Testing package managers and artifact registries (npm, PyPI)
  • Benchmarking gzip decompression performance
  • Testing backup/restore workflows on Linux servers
  • Validating Docker build context handling

TAR.GZ vs ZIP — When to use which

FeatureTAR.GZZIP
Compression ratioBetter (solid archive)Good (per-file)
Preserves Unix permissionsYes (chmod, owner)No
SymlinksYesNo
Random file accessNo (must decompress all)Yes (central directory)
Windows supportNeeds 7-Zip or WSLBuilt-in
Best forLinux/macOS, source code, deploysCross-platform, Windows users

How to create and extract tar.gz

# Create a tar.gz archive
tar -czf archive.tar.gz folder/

# Extract a tar.gz archive
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz

# List contents without extracting
tar -tzf archive.tar.gz

# Extract to a specific directory
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz -C /target/dir/

# Node.js (using tar package)
const tar = require('tar');
await tar.x({ file: 'archive.tar.gz', cwd: '/target' });

Technical specifications

FormatTAR (tape archive) + gzip compression
Extensions.tar.gz, .tgz
CompressionDEFLATE (gzip, zlib)
PreservesUnix permissions, ownership, symlinks
StreamingYes (can pipe stdin/stdout)
StandardPOSIX.1 (IEEE Std 1003.1)

Frequently Asked Questions

tar.gz vs ZIP — Which should I use?
Use tar.gz for Linux/macOS — it preserves Unix file permissions (chmod), ownership (uid/gid), and symbolic links that ZIP loses. tar.gz also achieves better compression via solid archiving (compresses all files as one stream). Use ZIP for cross-platform sharing, especially with Windows users, because ZIP has built-in OS support. Our sample files let you test both formats.
How to extract tar.gz on Windows, Mac, and Linux?
Linux/macOS: tar -xzf archive.tar.gz (built-in). Windows: use 7-Zip (free — right-click → Extract Here), or the built-in command line on Windows 11: tar -xzf archive.tar.gz. WSL users can use the native tar command. On Mac, double-click the .tar.gz file in Finder to extract automatically.
What is the difference between tar.gz and tar.bz2?
Both are tar archives with different compression algorithms. gzip (tar.gz) is 2–6x faster to compress and decompress. bzip2 (tar.bz2) achieves 10–20% better compression ratio but is significantly slower. For CI/CD and general use, tar.gz is preferred. For long-term archival where size matters more than speed, tar.bz2 may be worth the tradeoff.
What is the difference between .tar.gz and .tgz?
They are identical — .tgz is shorthand for .tar.gz. Both represent a tar archive compressed with gzip. The .tgz extension originated on systems limited to 3-character extensions (DOS/Windows). Modern systems support both interchangeably.
Can I extract a single file from a tar.gz?
Yes, but not efficiently. Unlike ZIP (which has a central directory for random access), tar.gz must be decompressed sequentially: tar -xzf archive.tar.gz path/to/file. The entire stream is read until the target file is found. For frequent random access to individual files, use ZIP or 7z instead.

Other archive formats

TAR.BZ2ZIP7ZRAR

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