Update: fixed

  • @[email protected]
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    2 days ago

    Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to get into a disagreement with someone who clearly knows more about file compression than I do.

    I was trying to make a joke where his crushed computer was merely compressed and I was using a terminal command to decompress the computer, as if it were a file.

    I wasn’t specifying tar as a file format. I was running the program “tar” using a terminal command.

    I think that if you pointed the command I used at a compressed file, it’d decompress it but what do I know?

    • @the_tab_key
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      2 days ago

      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)

      • @[email protected]
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        2 days ago

        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

        • @Sheldan
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          2 days ago

          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.