itar¶

Constant-time indexes for single or sharded tar archives. Build an index once, then read members directly without extracting the tarballs.

Quickstart¶

Install the CLI (includes the Python API):

pip install itar

Single tarball¶

echo "Hello world!" > hello.txt
tar cf hello.tar hello.txt

itar index create hello.itar
itar index list hello.itar

import itar

with itar.open("hello.itar") as archive:
    print(archive["hello.txt"].read())

Sharded tarballs¶

tar cf photos-0.tar wedding/
tar cf photos-1.tar vacation/

itar index create photos.itar   # discovers shards automatically
itar index list -l photos.itar

import itar

with itar.open("photos.itar") as photos:
    assert "wedding/cake.jpg" in photos
    img_bytes = photos["vacation/sunrise.jpg"].read()

What’s inside¶

• The CLI page covers itar index and itar cat.
• The Python API page documents the helper functions used above.
• The File Format page explains the MessagePack index layout.