.XZ File Extension

An XZ file is an archive compressed using XZ compression, a high-ratio compression algorithm based on the LZMA algorithm. It contains one or more files compressed by the xz command-line tool included with XZ Utils.

Much like a .ZIP file, an XZ file contains files that have been compressed so they can be stored and shared with others more easily. Users often use XZ files to share compressed files over the Internet, via email, and on USB drives.

XZ compression compresses files to smaller sizes than some alternatives, such as gzip and bzip2 compression. For this reason, XZ archives often contain compressed versions of large files, such as Slackware Linux package distributions and .ISO files.

NOTE: XZ files that contain a .TAR archive are saved as .TXZ files.

You can decompress XZ archives and view their contents with a variety of decompression utilities, including:

• XZ Utils (Linux)
• 7-Zip (Windows)
• WinRAR (Windows)
• Apple Archive Utility (macOS)
• The Unarchiver (macOS)