chandler: tar normalizer
March 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

SUMMARY
chandler is a tool for software developers to normalize application tape archives (*.TGZ, *.TAR.GZ files).
EXAMPLE
$ cd example
$ tree -p hello-1.0.0
[drwxr-xr-x] hello-1.0.0
├── [-rw-r--r--] hello
├── [-rw-r--r--] hello.bat
└── [-rw-r--r--] README
1 directory, 3 files
$ chandler -czf hello-1.0.0.tgz hello-1.0.0
archived entries to hello-1.0.0.tgz
$ tar -tzvf hello-1.0.0.tgz
drwxr-xr-x 0 501 20 0 Nov 14 11:18 hello-1.0.0
-rw-r--r-- 0 501 20 186 Nov 13 14:48 hello-1.0.0/README
-rwxr-xr-x 0 501 20 31 Nov 13 14:35 hello-1.0.0/hello
-rw-r--r-- 0 501 20 22 Nov 13 14:34 hello-1.0.0/hello.bat
Above, chandler aligns target file metadata to industry standards, repairing glitches in source file metadata.
See CONFIGURATION.md for configuration file options.
Run chandler -h for CLI options.
ABOUT
chandler automates industry norms for file permissions, file exclusions, lexicographical sorting, file path normalization, and more.
Metadata is normalized as each entry enters the archive, regardless of the original file metadata. This smooths out common SDLC workflows, especially for multi-platform engineering teams.
DOWNLOAD
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcandre/chandler/refs/heads/main/install-chandler | sh
Postinstall
Ensure $HOME/.local/bin is registered with your shell's PATH environment variable.
Uninstall
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcandre/chandler/refs/heads/main/uninstall-chandler | sh
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Bitness
64
Operating Systems
- FreeBSD 13 (Intel)
- Illumos (Intel)
- Linux (ARM, Intel)
- macOS 26 Tahoe+ (ARM, Intel)
- NetBSD 10.1 (Intel)
- WSL 2 (ARM, Intel)
Prerequisites
For additional platforms and install methods, see our install guide.
WARNING
Not intended for use in backup sysetms. Rather, chandler is primarily designed to assist with preparing install media.
SEE ALSO
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