Opening PHAR Files

The PHAR file type is primarily associated with PHP.

PHAR	File extension: PHAR
	File type:	application package/library

What is a PHAR file?

PHAR files mostly belong to PHP by The PHP Group. A PHAR file is a PHP application package or library saved as a PHP Archive. It provides a single-file solution for packaging, distributing, and installing PHP applications/libraries using tools such as Composer and PHPUnit. A PHAR file comprises PHP scripts, datasets, metadata (manifest), images, and other media assets which make up a library or an application. This file is saved in ZIP or TAR format using PHAR extension for PHP or PEAR package. PHP development environment can execute (instead of unpacking) a PHAR package if the file was marked as an executable when it was created.

How to open PHAR files

You need a suitable software like PHP from The PHP Group to open a PHAR file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your PHAR file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a PHAR file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online PHAR Text Viewer

Choose your .phar file to analyze

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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PHAR file extension format:

Every file has a defined file format, i.e. how the data is arranged in the file. Each file format has a unique extension and almost always a unique signature. For example, Microsoft Word documents have the extension .docx and the signature (usually the first 3 characters in this file) PK. If the file extension or signature does not match the file format, errors will occur when opening or editing the file. Exact knowledge of the format is therefore important in order to solve problems occurring in files. Our examination of the PHAR files comes to the following conclusion:

The PHAR extension is quite commonly used. The file itself covers different formats for different programs. But the following two file formats are common:

• 55% of all PHAR files start with the bytes <?php, which are crucial for this file format. The files are on average 230 KB in size and range from 5 KB to 1 MB. It is a modern file type. The files contain the following words: <?php __HALT_COMPILER(); ?>, phar, 0-beta, PoggitCI, beta default, builder, builderName, poggit and buildTime. Examples of file names are PocketMine-MP.phar. These files can be linked to pocket, mine, converter, score, economyapi, wars, connector, enchants and tools.
• 40% of all PHAR files are based on the well-known shell script file format. A shell script is a text file that contains shell commands for a UNIX-based operating system. The first line of such a text file is often #!/usr/bin/env or #!/bin/sh. These files are text files and can therefore be read using a text editor. Most of these files are 1 MB to 5 MB in size. The files contain the following words: #!/usr/bin/env php, <?php, phar, *   Jordi Boggiano <j.boggiano-seld-be>, * (c) Nils Adermann <naderman-naderman-de>, * For the full copyright and license informa, * This file is part of Composer and mapPhar. A common filename is composer.phar or wp-cli.phar. Such PHAR files store data about phpunit, phpstan, documentor and deployer.

All other PHAR files (5%) have no consistent format, often e.g. php. If you want to find out which format your PHAR file belongs to, just click on the button "Choose your .phar file to analyze".