Convert TGZ to TAR — Free Online Converter

TGZ is a gzip-compressed tar archive using the short .tgz extension common in Slackware packages, Helm charts, and embedded build systems. TAR is the underlying uncompressed archival format — stripping the gzip layer from a .tgz produces the raw tar stream containing all files and metadata.

Converting TGZ to TAR decompresses the gzip layer to expose the uncompressed tar archive inside. This is equivalent to running `gunzip archive.tgz` and is useful when you need the raw tar for compression algorithm substitution, Docker layer operations, tar entry manipulation, or feeding into tools that require uncompressed tar input.

Slackware package developers and maintainers sometimes need the uncompressed tar to inspect or modify package entries (install scripts, file permissions, directory layout) before recompressing. Helm chart developers may need to unpack, modify Chart.yaml or templates, and repackage. Direct tar manipulation is simpler without the gzip compression layer in the way.

Docker's build system and container layer management operate on uncompressed tar streams internally. Feeding raw .tar into Docker operations avoids redundant decompression. Similarly, switching to a different compressor (xz for Slackware's newer .txz format, zstd for faster decompression) requires the plain tar as an intermediate stage.

The gzip header is read and validated (magic bytes 1f8b, DEFLATE method), the compressed data stream is decompressed, and the CRC32 checksum in the gzip trailer is verified against the decompressed data. The output is the raw tar byte stream — the exact bytes that were gzip-compressed inside the .tgz. No tar parsing or modification occurs during this operation. The output size equals the original uncompressed size stored in the gzip footer.