Tarfile

Tarfiles..
A tarfile is a file made by the Unix utility tar.
This is a way of packaging together many files as one file
for distribution
(tarfiles are also often compressed before being distributed).

The tarfile module makes it possible to read and create tar archives.
Some facts and figures:

* reads and writes gzip and bzip2 compressed archives.
* creates POSIX 1003.1-1990 compliant or GNU tar compatible archives.
* reads GNU tar extensions longname, longlink and sparse.
* stores pathnames of unlimited length using GNU tar extensions.
* handles directories, regular files, hardlinks,
symbolic links, fifos, character devices and block devices and is
able to acquire and restore file information like timestamp,
access permissions and owner.
* can handle tape devices.