tar-stream simplifies creating and parsing tar archives. It offers a streaming interface, enabling efficient handling of large archives without loading them entirely into memory. You pipe data in and out via streams. This makes it excellent for scenarios like extracting specific files or modifying content on the fly. tar-stream powers core utilities like npm and backs many deployment pipelines for NodeJS applications. It's actively maintained and designed for simplicity.
Tar-stream's release frequency peaked in 2013 (7 releases) and 2014 (21 releases). Releases were frequent until 2016, then slowed significantly. There were some releases in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. No releases have occurred in the months leading up to September 7, 2025.
Tar-stream's npm package downloads exhibited strong growth from March 2024 to August 2025, peaking at over 164 million in July 2025. While download numbers were consistently high, September 2025 shows a significant drop, likely due to incomplete data for the current month.
