TAR file in Windows, can I see/use it?

[fallen13one]

Hi all! First I would like to introduce myself. I am fallen13one and my freind sniperviper21 referred me here, said that I might get the answer I seek. Reforming my life and ending the cess filled muck riddled filth I used to violently inflict on those who I viewed as "ignorant" but it was ultimately I who was blind and ignorant.

Anyways, Im trying to learn about security and in my adventures I came across a file I have never seen or used. TAR file? My Linux buddy tells me it is a .exe type of file for Linux distros. I have very little knowledge of Linux but will be delving into it soon enough when I begin using BT5 to learn and gain knowledge into security holes and exploits. Now in no way am I trying to be malicious because I want to help those who are at risk for an attack or exploit. Why cause harm when the world needs help thwarting the plethora of online deviants who want nothing more than to get rich stealing, kinda like the corporation lol

but I need to know, can I view this file in Windows 7? if so, how? I dont want to sound like a noob because to some degree I am, but I am a fast learn and adapt well to change. Only with the consumption of knowledge will I learn and grow. and I dont want some dry drivel or I would of googled it. I want to be able to ask a question and not be mocked, flamed, belittled, or told to **** off!! as that would lead to a stupid and pointless flaming session with two posturing retards, if I wanted that I would go start something with a /b/tard

sorry for the long windedness of this, but this is my first forum appearance in over a decade and am not the same person I used to be. I wish only now to be respectful, because its what I want, so its what I should give as well, unless Im on Xbox Live owning nubs in Halo lol

Thanks! I will try not to be so drawn out next time and appreciate the help and hope I posted in the right forum because I was unsure about where to post because its a file format question.

 

[wmorri]

So what your linux friends is pretty much true. Yet I will expand a little bit on this. Tar is a program that can be used to compress and uncompress folders and files. Think of it in the same manner as a zip on windows, but just think of it don't try and come up with the similarities because they are rather different. Anyway, the .exe equivalant is because a lot of programs that are written for linux are compressed with the file format .tar.gz.

To answer your second question. I would recommend that you use 7zip to open all compressed file formats. It is free, faster and smaller than winzip and will open the .tar.gz files for you in windows but you won't be able to do much of anything in them in windows besides look at what is inside and read a lot.

Hope this helps you get started as there is only a world of knowledge out there at your finger tips.

 

[Dngrsone]

Hrm... well. tar is a compression engine, and a tarball is a compressed or archived file.

The contents of a tarball could be either data or some kind of program. In linux, many programs can open up the contents of a tarball and work with the data contained. Window is slowly geting around to doing the same with .zip files, but you have to use the archive manager to open it up first.

Linux uses several different programming languages more or less natively, so the contents of a tarball could be a a shell script, or python or any number of languages, so you kind of need to know what language it is written to really understand what is going on in there.