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Format

Tape Archive Format

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Summary

Name
Tape Archive Format
Identifiers
  • MIME: application/x-tar
  • Apple Uniform Type Identifier: public.tar-archive
  • PUID: x-fmt/265
Format type
Aggregate
Description
An archive format originally intended to archive files on backup tapes without a file system of their own. TAR files are usually uncompressed.
Format encoding
Text
Note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_(computing) http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/Tape_Archive https://fileinfo.com/extension/tar
File extensions
tar
Submitted by
Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives

Relationships

Has lower priority than

Internal signatures

TAR (Tape Archive)

Description
TAR specification has a 256 byte header which includes 6 octal numbers which may be space or null terminated, may have leading spaces or zeros, and may vary in position by one byte, all depending on which of the many flavours the format follows. The above signature was tested on varied TAR files off the internet and the unknown files in digital preservation successfully.
Provenance
DROID 5.0 research; 11/2023 (v.115)- Signature ammended to allow whitespace options. Amended bytes 107 and 115 from 00 to (00|20). Submitted by National Library of Norway.

Byte sequences

Min Frag Length
Absolute from BOF
Offset
0
Max offset
0
Byte Sequence
[21:EF]{104}[30:37][20:37](00|20){5}[30:37][20:37](00|20){5}[30:37][20:37]00{10}[30:37](00|20){10}[30:37](00|20){5}[30:37][00:37](00|20)
Endianness
Little-endian

Changelog

  • V118

    Release date
    30 April 2024

    • Updated

      Tape Archive Format: Description created and documentation links added as part of PRONOM Research Week 2023. Submitted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  • V115

    Release date
    15 November 2023

    • Updated

      Tape Archive Format: Amended bytes 107 and 115 from 00 to (00|20). Submitted by National Library of Norway.

  • V34

    Release date
    2 April 2010

    • Added signature

      Tape Archive Format: Signature developed through DROID 5.0 research