JZip supports tar format archives, files with an extension of .tar are automatically assumed to be in tar format, an error will occur if they are not. Files without an extension are checked for tar format and thus processing tar archives does not require that the file has a .tar extension.
JZip will also process .gz and .bz2 files, Once .gz or .bz2 files have been decompressed, they are checked for tar format – if the resulting file is a tar file it will be displayed. Compressed tar files can also have a .tgz (gzip'd tar) or .tb2 (bzip2'd tar)
JZip also supports Octatec’s SXAzip format – this is a Self extracting Archive format used on Windows. If JZip is presented with a file with a .exe extension, it assumes it is an SXAzip archive, and error will result if it isn’t. JZip can only read SXAzip format files, it cannot write them.
| Traditional ZIP | .zip |
| Tar compressed with gzip | .tgz |
| Tar compressed with bzip2 | .tb2 |
| Uncompressed tar | .tar |
When opening an archive file, the format of the archive defines the output format, the default output format is only used when saving new archives. However, you can override the output format by choosing one of the above extensions when using the File/Save As menu and thus convert an archive to a different format.
Overriding the default format
You can always override the format from the File/Save As dialog, just select the required extension from the drop-down list, or enter an extension yourself - if you enter an extension that is different from the ones above, you will get the default format (except that .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 will also be understood).
Encrypted Format
If the Preferences/General Formats has 'encrypted' selected, the archive will be optionally encrypted when you save. Encrypted archives gain a .xip extension as well as their 'format' extension listed above. If the archive only has a .xip extension, it is an encryptedtraditional zip archive. NOTE: the encryption used is different from other ZIP tools which is why a different extension is used.