Why is there no 1 KB TAR sample?

A tar archive is built from 512-byte blocks and ends with two empty blocks, so the smallest archive containing a README and a payload is larger than 1 KB.

What is the MIME type of a TAR file?

The MIME type is application/x-tar. The file extension is .tar.

Is a sample TAR file the same as a dummy or example TAR file?

Yes. Sample, test, dummy and example TAR files are different names for the same thing: a TAR file with known contents that stands in for a real one. Any file on this page will do wherever a tutorial or a test plan asks for a dummy TAR file.

Free TAR sample files

The Unix archive format: files concatenated with headers, without compression. Download valid TAR test files in 5 exact sizes, from 10 KB to 10 MB, each with a checksum.

Extension: .tar
MIME type: application/x-tar
Kind: Binary
Category: Archives

TAR files by size

Every file below is a valid Tape archive file of exactly the stated size. Open a file's page for its checksum and contents. TAR files cannot be displayed by a browser, so their pages show the file's details instead of a preview.

TAR sample files by size
File	Size	Contents	Download
10 KB TAR samplesample-tar-10kb.tar	10 KB10,240 bytes	Entries: 2 (README.txt, payload.bin)	Download TAR
100 KB TAR samplesample-tar-100kb.tar	100 KB102,400 bytes	Entries: 2 (README.txt, payload.bin)	Download TAR
1 MB TAR samplesample-tar-1mb.tar	1 MB1,048,576 bytes	Entries: 2 (README.txt, payload.bin)	Download TAR
5 MB TAR samplesample-tar-5mb.tar	5 MB5,242,880 bytes	Entries: 2 (README.txt, payload.bin)	Download TAR
10 MB TAR samplesample-tar-10mb.tar	10 MB10,485,760 bytes	Entries: 2 (README.txt, payload.bin)	Download TAR

What is a TAR file?

A tar archive is a simple stream: a 512-byte header describing a file, then the file contents padded to a multiple of 512 bytes, repeated for each entry. It preserves Unix permissions and ownership.

Tar does not compress. It is normally combined with gzip, giving the familiar .tar.gz, or with other compressors.

How to recognise a TAR file

75u73s74t61a72r

Found at byte offset 257. Found at byte 257, inside the first header block.

Extension	.tar
MIME type	application/x-tar
Specification	POSIX ustar and pax
Block size	512 bytes
Compression	None; usually wrapped in gzip, bzip2, xz or zstd
End marker	Two blocks of zero bytes

What to test for

These are the behaviours that most often go wrong when software handles TAR files.

Like ZIP, tar entries can contain absolute paths or "../", and can be symbolic links. Validate before extracting.
There is no index, so listing the contents means reading the whole archive.

Strengths of TAR

Preserves Unix permissions, ownership and symbolic links.
A simple stream format that can be written and read without seeking.

Limitations of TAR

No compression of its own and no index of contents.
Not handled natively by older versions of Windows.

Typical uses of TAR test files

Testing archive extraction on servers
Checking backup and deployment tooling
Testing container and package pipelines

Software that opens TAR

tar on Linux, macOS and Windows
7-Zip and WinRAR
Docker images and software source releases

Specifications

POSIX pax utility and ustar interchange format

TAR sample files: questions

Why is there no 1 KB TAR sample?: A tar archive is built from 512-byte blocks and ends with two empty blocks, so the smallest archive containing a README and a payload is larger than 1 KB.
What is the MIME type of a TAR file?: The MIME type is application/x-tar. The file extension is .tar.
Is a sample TAR file the same as a dummy or example TAR file?: Yes. Sample, test, dummy and example TAR files are different names for the same thing: a TAR file with known contents that stands in for a real one. Any file on this page will do wherever a tutorial or a test plan asks for a dummy TAR file.