TAR Containing Three ZIP Archives
A tar carrying three ZIPs: two byte-identical and a third holding the same content stored rather than deflated. A deduplicating packer should notice the first two are the same object; a content-addressed one should notice all three extract to the same files.
- README.txt
- first.zip
- second.zip
- third.zip
Specifications
- Seed
- 20260807
- Members
- 4
- Nested Archives
- 3
- Nesting Depth
- 2
- Inner Members
- 2
- Variation
- first.zip and second.zip are byte-identical; third.zip stores the same content uncompressed
Testing contract
Expected to pass- Scenario
- Extract the tar, hash the three nested ZIPs, then extract each of them.
- Expected result
- first.zip and second.zip hash identically and third.zip does not, yet all three extract to the same 2 members with the same bytes.
What is a .tar file?
TAR (Tape Archive) is a Unix archive format that concatenates files with their metadata into a single uncompressed stream of fixed-size blocks. It preserves permissions, ownership, and directory structure but applies no compression itself. It is usually paired with a compressor such as gzip or xz.
How to use this file
Use an example TAR to test archive extraction, metadata and permission preservation, streaming block parsing, and pipelines that combine tar with external compression.
How to use this file for testing
“TAR Containing Three ZIP Archives” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Conversion testing, Compression testing. The same content exported across many formats and linked as a group, so you can convert one and diff against the expected twin.
Documented properties for this file: seed 20260807. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Archive fixtures are documented down to their member list (shown on this page) and are deliberately safe — no zip bombs, executables, or hidden payloads. Test extractors against nested, unicode, empty, and encrypted variants.
Code examples
tar -tf tar-of-zips.tar # list
tar -xf tar-of-zips.tar -C out/ # extractRelated files
- zipConvert v2 Archive-Media ZIP ControlExisting-format ZIP/TXT media control combining a plain README and a WebVTT sidecar for nested media extraction checks Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-legacy-archive-media-control.
- cabConvert v2 CAB Stored ControlValid single-file Microsoft Cabinet using uncompressed CFDATA for bounded legacy extraction tests Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-legacy-cab.
- tar.bz2Convert v2 Canonical TAR.BZ2Canonical compound-suffix source for the same deterministic bzip2-compressed TAR member set Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-tar-bz2.
- tar.xzConvert v2 Canonical TAR.XZCanonical compound-suffix source for the same deterministic XZ-compressed TAR member set Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-tar-xz.
- rarConvert v2 RAR4 Stored ControlValid RAR4 archive with two stored members and fixed metadata for legacy extraction tests Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-legacy-rar.
- tar.zstConvert v2 TAR.ZST Source 01Valid Zstandard-compressed TAR source 01 with 2 safe members for compound-suffix detection and extraction Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-tar-zst-01.
Generated by generation/archives_p7.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.