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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

100 KB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-100kb.tar.gz
Exact size
102,400 bytes
Displayed size
100 KB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-100kb.tar.gz

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sample-500kb.tar.gz

500 KB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-500kb.tar.gz
Exact size
512,000 bytes
Displayed size
500 KB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-500kb.tar.gz

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sample-1mb.tar.gz

1 MB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-1mb.tar.gz
Exact size
1,048,576 bytes
Displayed size
1 MB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-1mb.tar.gz

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sample-5mb.tar.gz

5 MB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-5mb.tar.gz
Exact size
5,242,880 bytes
Displayed size
5 MB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-5mb.tar.gz

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sample-10mb.tar.gz

10 MB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-10mb.tar.gz
Exact size
10,485,760 bytes
Displayed size
10 MB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-10mb.tar.gz

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sample-50mb.tar.gz

50 MB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-50mb.tar.gz
Exact size
52,428,800 bytes
Displayed size
50 MB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-50mb.tar.gz

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sample-100mb.tar.gz

100 MB
Verified file details
Filename
sample-100mb.tar.gz
Exact size
104,857,600 bytes
Displayed size
100 MB
MIME type
application/octet-stream
License
CC0 / Public Domain
Download URL
https://truefilesize.com/files/tar-gz/sample-100mb.tar.gz

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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

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