Yeah, you’re right and your “achsully” buddy doesn’t know how modern tar works. Yes, basic tar doesn’t compress, but adding -z triggers the use of gzip (hence .tar.gz) to add compression. You can also use other options to specify different compression algorithms/programs to use (eg lzma)
i know, but after you add a compression method to it, tar still doesn’t compress. Only the other, actual compression algorythm you add to it, like gz, xz, bz2, zst, rz, etc. I do know how modern tar works, but no matter how modern it is, it still can’t compress files. It only calls a file compressor at most
What does it matter? The OP never implied tar itself compresses, just that the mentioned command could try to decompress regardless of what happens underneath.
Yeah, you’re right and your “achsully” buddy doesn’t know how modern tar works. Yes, basic tar doesn’t compress, but adding -z triggers the use of gzip (hence .tar.gz) to add compression. You can also use other options to specify different compression algorithms/programs to use (eg lzma)
i know, but after you add a compression method to it, tar still doesn’t compress. Only the other, actual compression algorythm you add to it, like gz, xz, bz2, zst, rz, etc. I do know how modern tar works, but no matter how modern it is, it still can’t compress files. It only calls a file compressor at most
What does it matter? The OP never implied tar itself compresses, just that the mentioned command could try to decompress regardless of what happens underneath.