What year did the Unix “tar” program get released?

Question

Here's an simple question: what year did the Unix "tar" (TApe ARchive) come out? I wasn't able to find the answer with Internet searches.

Answer 1

First Edition UNIX included a tape backup program called "tap". Since it was designed around the capabilities of the First Edition filesystem, it did not have a concept of "group" (First Edition only had "user" and "other" permission bits) and used a 16-bit time format. Fourth Edition UNIX extended the file system capabilities and replaced "tap" with a new "tp" program for creating and reading tape backups. Similarly, when Seventh Edition UNIX was released in January 1979, it featured a new set of file system features and a new tape backup program called "tar" (for "Tape ARchiver").

So, 1979 it is.

Source : https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/wiki/FormatTar

Answer 2

tar wasn't in v6, but was in v7, if that helps.

Answer 3

GNU tar is the default on most GNU/Linux distributions. It is based on the public domain implementation pdtar which started in 1987.

From Wiki.

Answer 4

The format was created in the early days of Unix and standardized by POSIX.1-1988

1988

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_archive