tar_light for Rust

A simple and lightweight tar archive reader and writer library in Rust.

Features

• 📦 Pack and unpack TAR archives (.tar)
• 🗜️ Support for gzip compression (.tar.gz, .tgz)
• 📋 List files in archives
• 🚀 Simple and intuitive API
• 🔧 Command-line tool included

Usage

Packing files into a TAR archive

use tar_light::pack;

// List of files to include in the archive
let files = vec!["file1.txt",　"file2.txt", "dir/file3.txt"];

// Create plain TAR archive
pack("archive.tar", &files);

// Create gzip-compressed TAR archive
pack("archive.tar.gz", &files);

Unpacking files from a TAR archive

use tar_light::unpack;

// Extract plain TAR archive
unpack("archive.tar", "output_directory");

// Extract gzip-compressed TAR archive
unpack("archive.tar.gz", "output_directory");

Listing files in a TAR archive

use tar_light::list;

// Works with both .tar and .tar.gz
match list("archive.tar.gz") {
    Ok(headers) => {
        println!("Files in archive:");
        for header in headers {
            println!("  {} ({} bytes)", header.name, header.size);
        }
    }
    Err(e) => eprintln!("Error: {}", e),
}

Advanced usage with low-level API

use tar_light::{read_tar, write_tar, Tar, TarEntry, TarHeader};
use std::fs;

// Read tar archives
let bin_bytes = fs::read("testdata/simple.tar").unwrap();
let entries = read_tar(&bin_bytes);

// List entries
for entry in &entries {
    println!("{}: {} bytes", entry.header.name, entry.header.size);
}

// Write entries
let tar_bytes = write_tar(&entries);
fs::write("archive.tar", tar_bytes).unwrap();

// Create tar archive from scratch
let mut tar = Tar::new();
tar.add_str_entry("file1.txt", "Hello, World!");
tar.add_str_entry("file2.txt", "This is a test.");
let tar_bytes = tar.to_bytes();
fs::write("archive.tar", tar_bytes).unwrap();

Supported Formats

• .tar - Plain TAR archives
• .tar.gz - Gzip-compressed TAR archives
• .tgz - Gzip-compressed TAR archives (alternative extension)

Installation

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
tar_light = "0.1"

Or use cargo:

cargo add tar_light

The format is automatically detected based on the file extension.

Command Line Tool

The library includes a command-line tool for basic tar operations:

# Pack files into TAR archive
cargo run -- pack archive.tar file1.txt file2.txt

# Pack files into gzip-compressed TAR archive
cargo run -- pack archive.tar.gz file1.txt file2.txt

# Unpack archive
cargo run -- unpack archive.tar output_dir

# Unpack gzip-compressed archive
cargo run -- unpack archive.tar.gz output_dir

# List files in archive
cargo run -- list archive.tar.gz

Easy Building with just

This project uses just as a task runner, making it easy to build and test the project with simple commands. A justfile is provided for common tasks:

# Build the project
just build

# Build in release mode
just build-release

# Pack files into TAR archive
just pack archive.tar file1.txt file2.txt

# Unpack TAR archive
just unpack archive.tar output_dir

# List files in archive
just list archive.tar

# Clean up generated files
just clean

If you don't have just installed, you can install it with:

# macOS
brew install just

# Other platforms
cargo install just

License

MIT

Repository

• github.com/kujirahand/rust-tar_light
• crates.io/crates/tar_light
• docs.rs/tar_light