How to uncompress xz files in macOS Sierra?

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Level 1

4 points

How to uncompress xz files in macOS Sierra?

Hello,

I've upgraded a mac mini to macOS Sierra (10.12.4) and the Archive Utility cannot uncompress an xz tarball.

In Yosemite, the encoding for xz files in /usr/share/file/magic/compress was "xz", whereas in Sierra is now "XZ".

It's my impression that Archive Utility expects the older encoding, that is the lower case "xz" whereas the command 'file' prints an "XZ" when it inspects such a tarball.

Has anyone faced the same problem?

Thanks,

Ev. Drikos

Mac mini, macOS Sierra (10.12.4)

Posted on May 12, 2017 9:33 PM

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Answer 1

drikosev Author

Level 1

4 points

May 13, 2017 8:02 AM in response to Marco Klobas

Hello Marco,

Just downloaded it from the App Store and run a few tests.

As it seems it can be very slow with certain compressed tars (ie texinfo-6.3.tar.xz) when compared to the command "tar xf".

Nonetheless, it seems to be a working solution and allows you to choose the destination folder.

Thank you,

Ev. Drikos

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Answer 2

May 13, 2017 8:03 AM in response to drikosev

Have you tried "The Unarchiver" utility app?

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