FileHint
JAEN

.xz

Use caution

XZ compressed file

LZMA2-based high-ratio compression. Common in Linux kernel and distribution tarballs, steadily displacing gzip.

MIME types

  • application/x-xz

Category

archive

What opens this file

  • xz CLI
  • 7-Zip
  • The Unarchiver
  • tar -xJf

How to open by OS

Windows

  • 7-Zip.

Mac

  • `xz` via Homebrew, The Unarchiver.

Linux

  • xz-utils.

Ios

  • iZip.

Android

  • ZArchiver.

Safety notes

  • A supply-chain backdoor was discovered in xz-utils in 2024 (CVE-2024-3094). Ensure your distribution ships a patched build.
  • Compression-bomb style xz payloads can exhaust memory during extraction.

Common mistakes

  • Extracting .tar.xz via xz alone leaves a plain tar. Use tar -xJf for a single step.
  • Decompression is slower than gzip — pick gzip for frequently-unpacked files.

Related extensions

References