What is a .tar.gz file?
A .tar.gz (or .tgz) file is two formats stacked together. TAR bundles many files and folders into one, and GZIP then compresses that bundle. It's the standard way software, source code, backups and data exports are distributed on Linux and macOS.
ZIP does both jobs in one format and is understood by every operating system's built-in file manager, which is why it's the safer choice when you're sending files to someone else or uploading them to a site that only accepts ZIP.
What's kept, and what isn't
The conversion keeps everything needed to use the files:
- All files and folders, with their full paths.
- Long file names stored using the ustar, GNU or PAX conventions.
- Empty folders.
What doesn't carry over
Unix permissions and owners aren't carried over, because ZIP doesn't store them the same way — so a script that was executable inside the tarball will need chmod +x again after extracting on Linux. Symbolic links are skipped. Plain .tar files work too; .tar.bz2 and .tar.xz aren't supported yet.
Do I even need to convert it?
Maybe not. macOS opens .tar.gz with a double-click, Linux handles it natively, and recent versions of Windows 11 can open it in File Explorer. Convert when the recipient is on an older Windows version, when a website or form only accepts ZIP, or when you want to keep everything in a single format.