tarzen

Universal .tar.xz / .tar.gz installer for Linux. One command to extract, detect, and install — no matter what's inside.

Install

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mxskeen/tarzen/main/tarzen | sudo bash

Usage

sudo tarzen install ./app.tar.xz   # local file
sudo tarzen install ./app.tar.gz   # local file (gzipped)
sudo tarzen install https://example.com/app.tar.xz # from URL
tarzen list # see installed apps
sudo tarzen uninstall <app-name> # remove an app
tarzen info # show system info

What it handles

Content Type	Behavior
Pre-built binary	Moves to /opt, symlinks to /usr/local/bin, creates .desktop entry
AppImage	Installs to /opt, symlinks, desktop entry
Nested .deb	Installs via apt/dpkg
Nested .rpm	Installs via dnf/zypper/rpm
Source (CMake)	cmake .. && make && make install
Source (Make)	make && make install
Source (Autotools)	./configure && make && make install
Source (Meson)	meson setup && ninja && ninja install
Source (Cargo)	cargo build --release && cargo install
Source (Go)	go build && go install

Detection is automatic. Just point tarzen at a file and it figures out the rest.

Distro support

Auto-detects your distro and package manager via /etc/os-release. Works on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, Arch, Manjaro, openSUSE, Alpine, Void, Gentoo, NixOS, and more.

Self-management

tarzen --self-install # install/update tarzen itself
tarzen --self-uninstall # remove tarzen from system

Uninstall tarzen

sudo tarzen --self-uninstall

Requirements

• Linux with Bash
• sudo access for install/uninstall operations
• curl or wget for URL downloads

Zero dependencies. Single file. One command install.

License

MIT