# facebookincubator/xar

executable archive format

Repository: https://github.com/facebookincubator/xar
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/xar
Language: Python
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-12-28T22:35:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3352, "days_push": 979, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1572, forks 56 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:05.575539+00:00)

## What it is
XAR is a toolchain for packaging many files into a single self-contained executable archive based on a read-only SquashFS image. It is commonly used to distribute Python applications with all their source, native libraries, and data as one fast-starting, highly compressed file.

## Use cases
- package a python application into a single executable file
- replace virtualenv or pex with a faster self-contained archive
- compress and distribute many files as one mountable image
- ship python code with native shared libraries and data files
- reduce on-disk size and random disk io for deployed applications

## When to avoid
- you cannot install kernel drivers or setuid helpers on target systems
- you need a pure-python, no-root packaging solution
- you target windows or platforms without squashfs support

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: compression, file-system, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files
- platform: python, cli
- tags: executable-archive, squashfs, python-packaging, self-contained-executable, file-packaging, command-line, automation, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- facebookincubator/xar (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:05.575539+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:58:10.590987+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/facebookincubator/xar (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:05.575539+00:00, sha eb0562fac772)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/xar/json (fetched 2026-08-29T11:28:13.569485+00:00, sha 9c851717002b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.