What is a .XAR file?
XAR is the archive format behind macOS installer packages.
- Did you know
- XAR is the container Apple’s .pkg installers are built on.
- XAR was created within the OpenDarwin project and stores its table of contents as compressed XML at the very front of the file.
- Putting the table of contents first lets XAR list or extract one file without scanning the whole archive.
- What Analyser reads
- Open more archives, packages and installers: macOS XAR/.pkg/.mpkg installers (member list), Windows .msu updates (CAB), Snap SquashFS packages, Flatpak bundles, StuffIt (.sit/.sitx), lzop (.lzo) and Brotli (.br) streams, Java Web Start (.jnlp), and the .tlz/.tbz/.tz compressed-tarball shorthands.
- Depth of analysis
- .XAR is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .XAR file
- Drag a .XAR file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.