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<title>Head-to-head comparison of Phar, Tar and Zip</title>
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<h2 class="title">Head-to-head comparison of Phar, Tar and Zip</h2>
<p class="para">
What are the good and the bad things about the three supported file formats in
the phar extension? This table attempts to address that question.
<table class="doctable table">
<caption><strong>Feature matrix: Phar vs. Tar vs. Zip</strong></caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Feature</th>
<th>Phar</th>
<th>Tar</th>
<th>Zip</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>Standard File Format</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Can be executed without the Phar Extension
<a href="phar.fileformat.comparison.html#phar.fileformat.phartip" class="link">[1]</a>
</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Per-file compression</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whole-archive compression</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whole-archive signature validation</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes (PHP 5.3.1+)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Web-specific application support</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Per-file Meta-data</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whole-Archive Meta-data</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Archive creation/modification
<a href="phar.fileformat.comparison.html#phar.fileformat.phartip2" class="link">[2]</a>
</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Full support for all stream wrapper functions</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Can be created/modified even if phar.readonly=1
<a href="phar.fileformat.comparison.html#phar.fileformat.phartip3" class="link">[3]</a>
</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
<p class="para" id="phar.fileformat.phartip">
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong>
<p class="para">
[1] PHP can only directly access the contents of a Phar archive
without the Phar extension if it is using a <em>stub</em>
that extracts the contents of the phar archive. The stub
created by <span class="function"><a href="phar.createdefaultstub.html" class="function">Phar::createDefaultStub()</a></span> extracts
the phar archive and runs its contents from a temporary directory
if no phar extension is found.
</p>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para" id="phar.fileformat.phartip2">
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong>
<p class="para">
[2] All write access requires <em>phar.readonly</em> to
be disabled in php.ini or on the command-line directly.
</p>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para" id="phar.fileformat.phartip3">
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong>
<p class="para">
[3] Only tar and zip archives without <em>.phar</em> in their
filename and without an executable stub <em>.phar/stub.php</em>
can be created if phar.readonly=1.
</p>
</div>
</p>
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