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How do I make a .tar.bz2 from directory tree in Win10?

Trying tar -cjf Archive.tar.bz2 www and getting tar: Can't launch external program: bzip2.

Refs: Cannot Generate .tar File, https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/virtualization/2017/12/19/tar-and-curl-come-to-windows

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Tar is trying to use the bzip2 program for the bz2 compression, but you don't have bzip2 installed, or tar can't find it.

Install bzip2, or if it's already installed then configure it & tar correctly so tar can find it.

You might also consider trying the Windows Subsystem for Linux, if you're not already using it, then you can basically get everything in a Linux distro (Debian, Ubuntu, etc)

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  • Just Win10 user. Where is the bz2 install?
    – flywire
    Sep 20, 2018 at 5:19
  • I'd just install the Windows Subsystem for Linux with Debian or Ubuntu and get all the Linux tools at once, and linux filesystem support to boot. Or you could just search the web for bzip2 for windows but that's (at least seems like) installing anything for Windows, it's the wild west, there's no specific maintainers or anyone checking the files distributed ;-) unlike a linux distribution
    – Xen2050
    Sep 20, 2018 at 5:31
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    @PimpJuiceIT There are lots of unofficial software sources for linux too, like for a specific program, but you have to specifically add the source so should look into it & make sure you at least trust the source a little. Usually they provide source code for the software too, which at least builds trust even if you can't dig through the code looking for "bad stuff" ;-) Ubuntu has PPA's for adding "Personal Package Archives", there's a question about it on askubuntu that might be interesting.
    – Xen2050
    Sep 20, 2018 at 5:52
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    @PimpJuiceIT Welcome :) When I first tried Linux (Ubuntu) I had no idea how to even install any new software, maybe I missed the intro and definitely didn't read their faq's much. Web searches lead to a few "download and run archives" for linux, but getting the right version (that works with other installed packages, even 32/64bit) was a headache & risky like searching for Windows programs from random authors or that get modified by random websites to install "badware." With that much trouble getting something to run on purpose, I wasn't very worried about viruses installing behind my back
    – Xen2050
    Sep 20, 2018 at 6:04
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    The linux terminal's sometimes quick & easy for getting things done, but when a big change like systemd comes along at least the GUI's should still do things about the same. I still just use the gui for network changes for example, though there's probably at least 2 ways to get them done in a terminal but it would be a lot of reading & new commands, compared to a few mouse clicks... Anyway good luck!
    – Xen2050
    Sep 20, 2018 at 6:09

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