OpenSuSE and SuSE uses the Redhat Package Manager (rpm) for the distribution of software applications.  However, from time to time, we will also be asked to download the tarball as oppose to the rpm package.  So what is this tarball?

A tarball generally refers to a compressed archive file that contains the source codes for the software application. This is generally preferred method for source codes that are highly portable and have very little dependencies on the Linux distribution.  In addition to the source codes, the tarball will generally also contain the necessary compilation instructions (documentation) and the Makefile.

The tarball file is made using the UNIX tar command which basically appends all the files into a single file.  It is then compressed (using one of the various compression programs) resulting in either a .Z, .gz or a .bz2 extension.  The current common format of a tarball has a file extension .tar.gz or .tgz.

More on the .Z, .gz and .bz2 extensions later.