What is a .xz file?

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What is it

You're installing software on Linux and the source archive is a .tar.xz file. XZ has become the default compression format for many Linux distributions because it achieves some of the best compression ratios available — noticeably smaller than gzip or bzip2, though slower to compress.

XZ uses the LZMA2 algorithm (the same one behind 7Z archives), which is why the compression is so effective. Decompression is fast — it's only the compression step that takes time, which is fine for distribution archives that are compressed once and downloaded millions of times. The Linux kernel, GNU core utilities, and most major open-source projects ship their tarballs as .tar.xz.

Linux handles XZ natively (`tar -xJf archive.tar.xz`). macOS needs the xz command-line tool (install via Homebrew: `brew install xz`). On Windows, 7-Zip opens .tar.xz files. If you encounter one, it almost certainly came from a software project. If you're creating archives, XZ is the right choice when download size matters more than compression speed.

Technical details

Full Name

XZ Compressed File

MIME Type

application/x-xz

Developer

Lasse Collin

Magic Bytes

FD 37 7A 58 5A 00

Safety

What opens it

Built-in on Linux

FREE Linux

7-Zip

FREE Windows

The Unarchiver

FREE macOS

FAQ

Why is XZ used instead of gzip?

XZ produces significantly smaller files — often 30-50% smaller than gzip. The tradeoff is slower compression, but decompression is fast. For software distribution (compress once, download millions of times), XZ is the efficient choice.

How do I open .tar.xz on macOS?

Install the xz tools via Homebrew (`brew install xz`), then use `tar -xJf archive.tar.xz`. The Unarchiver (free, Mac App Store) also handles .tar.xz files with a double-click.

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