About Compressed Archive Formats

Compressed archives are a result of combining multiple files into a single file, which makes them easier to carry or store. Archiving software often provides extra functionalities like encryption, file segmentation, checksum verification, self-extraction, and self-installation. The widely used Zip format is compatible with both Windows and OSX operating systems. RAR is another popular and flexible format. Unix systems rely on the tar file format, while Linux systems employ the tar and gz format.