tar --version Expected output: tar (GNU tar) 1.32 or higher.
:: Compress with maximum gzip (slowest, smallest) tar -czvf --options gzip:compression-level=9 backup.tar.gz largefolder/ :: Exclude .tmp and .log files tar -czf backup.tar.gz --exclude="*.tmp" --exclude="*.log" data/ :: Include only .txt files tar -czf texts.tar.gz --include="*.txt" data/ 4.4 Handling Long Paths (>260 chars) Windows tar supports long paths natively if enabled in system policy. To force: tar for windows
<Exec> <Command>tar</Command> <Arguments>-czf D:\backups\weekly-%date%.tgz C:\inetpub\wwwroot</Arguments> </Exec> Note: Use %date:/=-% to avoid slashes in filename. # From WSL Bash, call Windows tar tar.exe -czf /mnt/c/backup.tar.gz /mnt/c/Users/MyUser Windows tar can read Linux symlinks (preserved if run as admin) 6. Performance Benchmarks Test environment: Windows 11 Pro, 32 GB RAM, NVMe SSD, 10,000 mixed files (2.3 GB total). tar --version Expected output: tar (GNU tar) 1
| Tool / Method | Archive Format | Time (sec) | Compressed Size | |---------------|----------------|------------|------------------| | Windows tar | tar.gz (level 6) | 8.4 | 890 MB | | 7-Zip (GUI) | 7z (ultra) | 12.7 | 812 MB | | PowerShell Compress-Archive | zip | 23.1 | 1.05 GB | | WinRAR (CLI) | rar5 (normal) | 9.2 | 878 MB | | Windows tar | tar.xz | 18.6 | 745 MB | | Windows tar | tar.zst (level 3) | 6.1 | 915 MB | # From WSL Bash, call Windows tar tar
To verify installation:
choco install tar # or choco install gnuwin32-tar Prepared by Systems Engineering For internal distribution and technical reference.