Windows 10: tar and curl support

Microsoft plans to integrate the command line tools tar and curl in the next feature update of Windows 10, out in March 2018.

While we don't know the full name of the next feature update yet, it is clear that it will feature major improvements and additions unlike the rather bleak Fall Creators Update.

Microsoft did mention previously that it plans to publish a major update and later on in the year another update that refines it (see Too many Windows 10 feature updates for an opinion piece on that release strategy).

It is pretty clear though that Microsoft is turning Windows 10 into a jack of all trades system. After adding SSH client and server support in the Fall Creators Update, it now revealed that tar and curl support are coming to Windows 10 as well.

Linux users may shrug their shoulders at this point as the two command line tools have been part of Linux for a long time.

While most Windows users may be able to cope without support for these tools, they are still nice to have. Users who wanted to extract TAR archives up until now had to use third-party software like Bandizip or 7-Zip to do so.

Microsoft notes that the two tools are "staples in a developer's toolbox", and that the tools work exactly as they do on *nix systems.

Tar is a command line tool to create and extract tar archives, and Curl a command line tool to transfer files. Microsoft does note that PowerShell offered some of the functionality already, but that the new addition integrates in cmd as well.

The company provides one example that demonstrates how the integration of the tools improves how developers and admins do work.

Now that we’re shipping these tools inbox, you no longer need to worry about using a separate container image as the builder when targeting nanoserver-based containers.

Microsoft plans to integrate support in the next feature update. The feature is available already on the most recent Windows 10 Insider Builds.

Tar Support

The tar.exe command line tool works pretty much as you'd expect it to. Use tar -x to extract archives, or tar-c to create them. You can also run add/replace, list and update operations, and use various options to customize the command.

You can use the command tar --help to display all options of the command line tool.

Curl Support

Curl works equally well and as expected. It comes with lots of options, and a basic command looks like curl.exe -o example.zip https://www.example.com/examplefile.zip. What it does basically is download the file from the URL that is specified and save it as example.zip on the local system.

You can use the command curl --help to display all options of the command line tool.