Tar Utility For Windows May 2026

Abstract The tar (tape archive) utility is a cornerstone of file archiving in Unix-like systems, but native Windows environments lack a built-in equivalent. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Windows-native tar utility that emulates POSIX behavior while adhering to Windows file system semantics, path conventions, and security models. Key contributions include handling of alternate data streams, long path names, permission mapping between POSIX and NTFS ACLs, and integration with PowerShell and CMD. Performance benchmarks and compatibility tests against GNU tar 1.34 are provided. 1. Introduction The tar format (POSIX.1-2001) remains the dominant archiving standard for software distribution, system backups, and container images (e.g., Docker). However, Windows users traditionally rely on third-party ports (e.g., GNUWin32, Cygwin) or proprietary tools (WinRAR, 7-Zip). These solutions introduce dependencies or incomplete POSIX emulation.

| POSIX bits | Windows mapping | |------------|----------------| | 0400 (owner read) | FILE_GENERIC_READ for owner SID | | 0200 (owner write) | FILE_GENERIC_WRITE | | 0100 (owner exec) | Treat .exe/.com/.bat specially | | 0040 (group read) | Not directly mappable → set inherit flag |

// Write file content if (!info.isDirectory) HANDLE h = CreateFileW(path.c_str(), GENERIC_READ, ...); WriteFileContent(h, info.size); tar utility for windows

// Pipeline: TarWriter -> GzipFilter -> FileWriter

void TarWriter::addADS(const std::wstring& path) std::wstring streamPath = path + L":Zone.Identifier"; HANDLE h = CreateFileW(streamPath.c_str(), GENERIC_READ, ...); if (h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) // Store as separate entry with name "path:Zone.Identifier" addFile(streamPath, ToUtf8(path) + ":Zone.Identifier"); Abstract The tar (tape archive) utility is a

// Write header block WriteBlock(&header, 512); padToEvenBlock = false;

bool IsSparseFile(HANDLE h) DWORD bytes; FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TAG_INFO tag = 0; DeviceIoControl(h, FSCTL_GET_NTFS_FILE_RECORD, ...); return (tag.FileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SPARSE_FILE) != 0; Cygwin) or proprietary tools (WinRAR

return true;