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### 1.4 How `tar` Archives are Named

Conventionally, `tar` archives are given names ending with ‘`.tar`’. This is not necessary for `tar` to operate properly, but this manual follows that convention in order to accustom readers to it and to make examples more clear.

Often, people refer to `tar` archives as “`tar` files,” and archive members as “files” or “entries”. For people familiar with the operation of `tar`, this causes no difficulty. However, in this manual, we consistently refer to “archives” and “archive members” to make learning to use `tar` easier for novice users.