# Why is fetchTarball not mentioned in "Chapter 11. Fetchers" of the Nixpkgs manual?

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-is-fetchtarball-not-mentioned-in-chapter-11-fetchers-of-the-nixpkgs-manual/15319
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [October 3, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-is-fetchtarball-not-mentioned-in-chapter-11-fetchers-of-the-nixpkgs-manual/15319 "2021-10-03T03:34:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![toraritte](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/toraritte/32/6777_2.png) [@toraritte](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/toraritte)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-is-fetchtarball-not-mentioned-in-chapter-11-fetchers-of-the-nixpkgs-manual/15319/3 "2021-10-03T14:40:47Z")

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> [@jtojnar](#):
>
> Just for completion, `builtins.fetchTarball` serves the same purpose as `fetchzip` – download an archive and then unpack it into store. Despite the name and docs, both support tarballs and zip files. (Nix uses libarchive, and `fetchzip` depends on `unzip` and uses `gnutar` from `stdenv` .)

What’s more confusing is that `fetchurl` also takes tarballs (e.g., see [example in the Nix manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/#sec-expression-syntax)).

* * *

Anyway, appreciate the write-up, and it seems to be most comprehensive summary of fetchers. Thank you for taking the time!

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Related threads:

- [Difference between fetchtarball fetchfromgithub fetchgit?](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/difference-between-fetchtarball-fetchfromgithub-fetchgit/3279)
- [Difference between `fetchgit` and `fetchGit`](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/difference-between-fetchgit-and-fetchgit/3619)
- [Troubleshooting fetch\* commands (like fetchFromGitHub)](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/troubleshooting-fetch-commands-like-fetchfromgithub/6159)
- [Deceptive scope mismatches](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/deceptive-scope-mismatches/9239)
- [Why wouldn’t the sha256 hash change when fetching from a different URL (when updating a package)?](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-wouldnt-the-sha256-hash-change-when-fetching-from-a-different-url-when-updating-a-package/11745)

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