[zorked]

Tar does not implement decompression. If you don't have xz installed it won't work.

[masklinn]

That doesn't seem correct, on osx 10.11 `tar xf` can extract `.tar.xz` yet doesn't fork an xz. AFAIK 10.11 doesn't even come with xz.

[jessaustin]

tar can link the xz lib without forking.

[masklinn]

So tar does "implement decompression" (and compression, by delegating the work to libarchive) and it can work even "if you don't have xz installed".

[jessaustin]

It would require liblzma, but you are correct that the library is a separate thing from the executable xz.

[masklinn]

> It would require liblzma

Yep, in the same way it requires libz and libbz2.

[killercup]

IIRC bsdtar (e.g. on OS X) includes xz.