---
id: tzst
version: "1.3.3"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# tzst — The next-generation Python library engineered for modern archive management, leveraging cutting-edge Zstandard compression to deliver superior performance, security, and reliability

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 207.0K/mo

## What it is and what it does

tzst is a Python library for creating, extracting, and managing tar archives compressed with Zstandard. It provides both a command-line interface and a programmatic API, supporting atomic file operations, streaming for large archives, and configurable security filters during extraction. The library targets Python 3.12 and later, treating Zstandard compression as a first-class archive format alongside standard tar operations.

The package is built around the zstandard library and offers convenience functions for common tasks (create_archive, extract_archive, list_archive) as well as a lower-level TzstArchive class for fine-grained control. It emphasizes safe defaults—using the 'data' security filter by default during extraction—and provides both .tzst and .tar.zst extension support for compatibility.

Use it for:

- Create compressed backups of directories with better compression ratios than gzip while maintaining tar compatibility.
- Extract large archives in streaming mode to minimize memory usage on resource-constrained systems.
- Automate archive operations in Python scripts using the API without spawning external processes.
- Verify archive integrity before extraction to catch corruption early.
- Distribute pre-built binaries or application bundles using Zstandard compression for faster downloads.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

tzst creates and extracts tar archives compressed with Zstandard, offering a Python API and command-line interface for archive management with streaming support and atomic operations.

Yes, if you need Zstandard-compressed tar archives in Python 3.12+. The library is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, installs with minimal friction, and offers both CLI and API interfaces. The BSD-3-Clause license is permissive. Start with the convenience functions; use the TzstArchive class only if you need fine-grained control.

## Install

pip install tzst
uv add tzst
poetry add tzst

## Installing tzst

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with a single runtime dependency (zstandard). Active maintenance with recent releases and a small but growing user base.

License in practice: BSD-3-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute tzst freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install tzst

from tzst import create_archive, extract_archive

create_archive("archive.tzst", ["file.txt", "dir/"])
extract_archive("archive.tzst", "output/")

Requires Python 3.12 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether streaming mode provides measurable memory savings for archives of specific sizes.
- Performance comparison with standard tar + gzip or other compression libraries in real-world scenarios.
- Compatibility guarantees with archives created by other Zstandard tar tools.

## Package facts

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 207.0K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

tar zstandard compression, tzst archive creation, zstandard tar library, python archive compression, streaming tar extraction, zst archive management, tar.zst python, archiving, compression, cli-tool

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