Sample TAR.XZ File — Download an XZ-Compressed Tarball Test Archive

XZ (LZMA2) compressed tarball · .tar.xz, .txz · MIME type application/x-xz

1 file740 KB740 KBDirect linksNo ads, no sign-upFree for any useSHA-256 verified

Download a sample TAR.XZ file — a tarball compressed with xz, the LZMA2-based format that Linux kernel sources, most distribution packages and many large downloads use because it compresses tighter than gzip and bzip2.

xz support is universal on Linux and macOS and built into Windows 10's tar and 7-Zip, but not every server-side library handles it. This file is the check.

Download sample TAR.XZ files

FileDetailsSizeDownload
sample-archive-small.tar.xz
7 files
7 entries740 KB
740,432 bytes
1 file · direct links · no sign-up · CORS enabled

Use these files from the command line or CI

Every URL is stable and CORS-open. Pin the SHA-256 in your test and you will know the moment a fixture changes.

# Download one file
curl -O https://pnb-website-bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/samples/archives/tar-xz/sample-archive-small.tar.xz

# Verify it (SHA-256 is listed for every file above)
shasum -a 256 sample-archive-small.tar.xz

# Machine-readable index of every sample file
curl https://pnb-website-bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/samples/index.json | jq '.files[] | select(.format=="tar-xz")'

TAR.XZ format at a glance

Full nameXZ (LZMA2) compressed tarball
Extensions.tar.xz, .txz
MIME typeapplication/x-xz
FormatPOSIX tar inside xz (LZMA2)
Magic bytesFD 37 7A 58 5A 00

What people test with sample TAR.XZ files

  • Compression-algorithm coverage in extractors
  • Linux package and source handling

Frequently asked questions

xz vs gzip — which should I ship?

xz for archives people download once and keep (smaller); gzip for anything decompressed frequently or on the fly (much faster). zstd is increasingly the best of both.

Are these TAR.XZ files safe to download?

Yes. Every file is generated by our own open script from scratch — nothing is scraped or user-uploaded — and contains no scripts, macros or executables. The SHA-256 of each file is published on this page so you can verify what you received.

Can I use the sample TAR.XZ files commercially?

Yes. They are free for any purpose, including commercial products, test suites, demos and redistribution, with no attribution required. There is nothing to license and no one to ask.

Can I hotlink these files or use them in CI?

Yes. Every link is a stable direct URL over HTTPS with Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * and long cache headers, so curl, wget, fetch() and test runners can pull them directly. A JSON index of every file is linked from each page (see the command-line section).

Related sample files

Testing a file pipeline? We build them.

Uploads, conversions, previews, document processing and media workflows are the kind of production systems Pine & Birch designs and runs for clients — which is why we needed these files in the first place.

See how we can help
Free sample files by Pine & Birch — technology consulting, Toronto. Free for any use, no attribution required.