DISCONTINUED

As of October 2022, BitZipper has been discontinued. Please check out our other product Bitberry File Opener instead - it can open 410 file types, including even more archive- and compressed files than BitZipper could.



Home page of BitZipper
Select language:   
Visit the Bitberry Software main site
Home Buy now Features Screenshots Download Customer Portal Support About

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.

BitZipper can open and create BZIP2 files.
Click here to download BitZipper - FREE to try for 30 days!

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.

Download a fully functional 30 day trial version of BitZipper
Buy BitZipper now and download the licensed version immediately