PHAR file extension

Archived using the PHAR (PHP Archive) format file that may be generated with the Phar PHP class and includes a list of files and supports bzip2 and gzip compression and checksums for the package. This package is used to distribute and execute PHP programs with a single file. PHAR files are similar to Java JAR files and may be run with PHP. For example PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository, a package manager for PHP extensions) is provided as a PHAR package. PHAR files are compatible with APC (Alternative PHP Cache, an "opcode cache" that is used to optimize program performance by caching the compiled versions of code). PHP version 5.3 includes Phar, the PHP components that is used to read and write PHAR files.