What is a BZIP2 file? Learn about BZIP2 files here

A BZIP2 file is an compressed file, which means that it is a file that has been reduced in size. This is often done to speed up distribution over the Internet and to save storage space.

BZIP2 file details

The BZIP2 file format and first bzip2 compression tool was released in 1996 as a free open source data compression system. It was designed and created by Julian Seward.

BZIP2 is capable of more efficient compression than regular ZIP files, however it compresses files slower. Decompression is fast though.

Unlike ZIP, BZIP2 does not support archiving. This means that it is not possible to put more than one file in the BZIP2 file. This is circumvented by first using TAR to archive (not compress) multiple files into one, and then compressing it with BZIP2 afterwards. This results in a file with the extension .TBZ, e.g. yourfile.tbz

Opening and creating BZIP2 files

If you are trying to open or create BZ2 or TBZ files on a Windows PC, then you will need a tool like BitZipper. After installing BitZipper, you can open a BZIP2 file simply by double-clicking it or by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer, or by starting BitZipper and opening the BZIP2 file the same way you open a document in your word processor.

Technical details

If you are looking for technical details and the complete history of the .BZIP2 file format, please refer to this Wikipedia article.