# What is a "tarpipe" and how do I use it?

**URL:** <https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-is-a-tarpipe-and-how-do-i-use-it/267>\
**Category:** Q&A\
**Tags:** data, data-transfer, researcher\
**Created:** [July 6, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-is-a-tarpipe-and-how-do-i-use-it/267 "2018-07-06T18:51:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jkingsley](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@jkingsley](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/jkingsley)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-is-a-tarpipe-and-how-do-i-use-it/267/1 "2018-07-06T18:51:04Z")

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I have seen the concept of a “tarpipe” mentioned in a few places, in the context of data transfer. It is often noted to be faster than `scp` or `rsync`. What is this, and how would I use it to more effectively transfer files?

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**Author:** ![jpessin1](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/user_avatar/ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/jpessin1/32/339_2.png) [@jpessin1](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/jpessin1)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/what-is-a-tarpipe-and-how-do-i-use-it/267/2 "2018-07-11T17:44:24Z")

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It is using a pipe to direct the output of tar often used in conjunction with ssh, or other communication tools.

There are some good bits on this on unix.stackexchange and superuser.

> <https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/10026/how-can-i-best-copy-large-numbers-of-small-files-over-scp>

> <https://superuser.com/questions/325504/howto-pipe-cp-tar-gzip-without-creating-intermediary-files>

> <https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/30953/tar-rsync-untar-any-speed-benefit-over-just-rsync>