TAR is how Unix still hands you a tree: a tape archive, often then gzipped. TarShift builds and extracts tar (and the usual compressed cousins the UI supports) in the browser so a Linux tarball does not have to visit an upload site on the way to a Windows laptop. Use it for source trees, config bundles, and log folders of reasonable size. Do not use it as docker save for a 4 GB image, and do not confuse it with ZipShift — ZIP and tar are not the same container even when both are 'an archive.' Permissions and Unix paths are why tar still exists.
Create: drop files, download a .tar or .tar.gz depending on the control. Extract: drop a tarball, list, unpack. Gzip is the common compression; it will not match zstd ratios. Binary files still dominate size. A node_modules tree is a rite of passage and a way to freeze a tab. Exclude junk before you pack.
Windows users meet tar when a README says curl | tar. This page is the GUI for that moment. Path traversal tricks in hostile archives are a real genre. TarShift should keep extracts under a prefix; still, do not unpack a tarball from a stranger and then run the scripts inside. That is not a converter problem, that is how people get owned.
When not to use it: encrypted 7z, RAR, and ZIP (use ZipShift). Also skip huge backups. Privacy is local. A tarball of .env files should never be an upload. If the extract looks empty, it might be a tar of tar, or pax headers you are not listing. Try a desktop tar tf.
A small Go project: 40 source files, 1.2 MB. TarShift writes project.tar.gz at 280 KB. A Windows teammate extracts in the tab and opens main.go. A second drop is node_modules plus build artifacts, 700 MB; you abort and add a .gitignore discipline. The source tarball never uploaded. The teammate did not install tar in Git Bash first, which was the original complaint. A Windows teammate extracting main.go without Git Bash tar is the original complaint this GUI answers.
TarShift packs and extracts in the browser. Tarballs never upload. That matters for source trees with secrets in configs. Still: an extracted .env on your disk is your problem to not commit. Close the tab when finished. A tarball of .env files should never be an upload, even when the extract UI is convenient.
Full policy: Shift Privacy Policy. Questions: [email protected].
Tar preserves a Unix-ish tree and is usually compressed as a second step (gzip). ZIP compresses per file and is the Windows default. Pick the format the recipient's tooling expects.
Same format, different suffix. If a tool is picky about the name, rename. The bytes are the gzipped tar stream. .tgz and .tar.gz are the same stream with a different suffix; rename if a tool is picky about the name.
You can, but you gain nothing and may OOM the tab. Send the video, or use ZIP only if you needed a bundle of many files. Tarring one huge video is a way to OOM the tab for no compression win; send the file instead.
Some tars include extended headers. Desktop tar handles them quietly. Skip those entries; they are not your source. Extended pax headers are not your source; desktop tar tf will list them quietly if you are unsure.
Related tools: ZipShift · ZipTarShift · SplitShift
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