gunzip -c myfolder.tar.gz | tar -xf - This is in action. Two tools, each doing one thing well, combined into a powerhouse. 🔄 Part 3: Why Not Just Use ZIP? ZIP does both: archiving + compression. So why does the open-source world still love .tar.gz ?
The .tar.gz is not glamorous. It doesn’t have a cool logo. But it’s carried source code across continents, slotted into CI pipelines, and faithfully restored countless backups. gzipped tarball
For source code, system backups, and Docker layers, .tar.gz wins because it faithfully restores the original environment. gunzip -c myfolder
It’s not just a file. It’s a time capsule of Unix philosophy, a marriage of two very different tools, and the reason you’re not drowning in thousands of loose source files. ZIP does both: archiving + compression
If you tar -cf myfiles.tar folder/ , you get a .tar file that’s often larger than the original folder (due to metadata and padding).