RAR to TAR Converter

RAR to TAR online — pure Unix bundles, free converter

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Unix Metadata Support

TAR carries Unix permissions, ownership, and symlinks that RAR discards. Converting from RAR to TAR gives your archive proper Unix-native metadata.

Effortless Conversion

No command-line skills needed. Upload your RAR, choose TAR, download the result — the entire process is designed for simplicity.

Runs on Our Servers

The entire RAR to TAR conversion happens remotely. Your device stays free and responsive — no local CPU or memory is consumed.

How to convert RAR to TAR

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

Choose tar or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

Let the file convert and you can download your tar file right afterwards

About formats

RAR (Roshal Archive) is a proprietary compressed archive format created by Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal in March 1993, distributed through the WinRAR) archiver that became one of the most widely installed Windows applications worldwide. The format uses a sophisticated compression algorithm that has evolved through several major versions (RAR 1.3, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0), with each revision improving compression ratios and adding features. RAR5, the current version, employs a dictionary-based algorithm with dictionary sizes up to 1 GB and supports optional BLAKE2sp hashing for integrity verification. The format provides solid compression (treating multiple files as a continuous stream), multi-volume archive splitting, recovery records for repairing damaged archives, AES-256 encryption for both content and filenames, and Unicode filename support. One advantage is reliable error recovery — RAR's recovery record feature can reconstruct damaged archive portions, a capability that made it popular for distributing large files across unreliable connections and Usenet posts. Strong compression performance is another key strength: RAR consistently ranks among the top formats for general-purpose compression ratios, particularly on heterogeneous file collections. While the compression algorithm is proprietary and creating RAR archives requires licensed software, the decompression code is freely available, and extraction is supported by virtually every archiving tool across all platforms. RAR remains one of the most common archive formats encountered online.

Developer: Eugene Roshal

Initial release: March 1993

TAR (Tape Archive) is a Unix archive format originating in Version 7 Unix) at AT&T Bell Labs in January 1979, originally designed for writing file backups to magnetic tape drives. Unlike ZIP or RAR, TAR is a pure archiving format that concatenates multiple files into a single stream without applying compression — each file is preceded by a 512-byte header block containing the filename, permissions, ownership, size, modification time, and checksum, followed by the file data padded to 512-byte boundaries. The format has evolved through several standards: the original V7 format, the POSIX.1-1988 ustar format (extending path lengths and adding support for more file types), and the POSIX.1-2001 pax format supporting extended attributes, arbitrary-length paths, and large file sizes. TAR is almost always paired with a compression tool — gzip (.tar.gz/.tgz), bzip2 (.tar.bz2/.tbz2), xz (.tar.xz), or others — producing a two-layer structure where compression operates on the entire stream for maximum efficiency. One advantage is exceptional Unix metadata fidelity — TAR preserves permissions, ownership, symbolic links, hard links, device files, and extended attributes with greater precision than most competing formats. Universal availability is another core strength: tar is a POSIX-mandated utility present on every Unix-like system, and tools on Windows and macOS handle TAR files natively. TAR remains the standard distribution format for source code, Linux filesystem images, container layers, and system backups.

Developer: AT&T / Unix

Initial release: January 1979

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert RAR to TAR?

TAR is the native Unix bundling format. It preserves file permissions, ownership, and symbolic links — metadata that RAR cannot carry. Essential for Linux and macOS workflows.

What programs can extract TAR archives?

The tar command is built into Linux and macOS. On Windows, 7-Zip opens TAR archives natively. Virtually every archive utility supports TAR extraction.

Is RAR to TAR conversion free?

Yes. Convertio.co provides this conversion at no cost — no account, no payment, no usage limits to worry about.

Does TAR compress my data?

No, TAR bundles files without applying compression. This makes it ideal as a base layer — you can later add gzip, xz, or bzip2 compression as needed.

Can I do this from an iPad?

Absolutely. Open convertio.co in Safari or any browser on your iPad and the converter functions identically to the desktop experience.

Is the internal structure preserved?

Every directory, subdirectory, file path, and nested structure from your RAR archive is maintained exactly in the TAR output.

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Specific converters

ZIP to TAR

RAR to TAR

TGZ to TAR

RPM to TAR

7Z to TAR

TAR.XZ to TAR

JAR to TAR

TAR.LZ to TAR

DEB to TAR

ALZ to TAR

ACE to TAR

ARC to TAR

ARJ to TAR

CAB to TAR

CPIO to TAR

LHA to TAR

TAR.7Z to TAR

TAR.BZ to TAR

TAR.LZMA to TAR

TAR.LZO to TAR

TAR.Z to TAR

TBZ2 to TAR

RAR to TAR Quality Rating

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