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                            List of archive formats

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   This is a list of file formats used by archivers and compressors used to
   create archive files.

Contents

     * 1 Archiving only
     * 2 Compression only
     * 3 Archiving and compression
     * 4 Data recovery
     * 5 Comparison
          * 5.1 Containers and compression
               * 5.1.1 Notes
          * 5.2 Software packaging and distribution
               * 5.2.1 Notes
          * 5.3 Features
     * 6 See also
          * 6.1 Notes
     * 7 Footnotes

Archiving onlyEdit

File             MIME type^[2]               Official Platform^[4] Description       
extension(s)^[1]                             name^[3] 
                                                                   The traditional   
                                                                   archive format on 
                                             Unix                  Unix-like         
.a, .ar          application/x-archive       Archiver Unix-like    systems, now used 
                                                                   mainly for the    
                                                                   creation of       
                                                                   static libraries. 
                                                                   RPM files consist 
                                                                   of metadata       
                                                                   concatenated with 
                                                                   (usually) a cpio  
                                                                   archive. Newer    
.cpio            application/x-cpio          cpio     Unix-like    RPM systems also  
                                                                   support other     
                                                                   archives, as cpio 
                                                                   is becoming       
                                                                   obsolete. cpio is 
                                                                   also used with    
                                                                   initramfs.        
                                                                   A self-extracting 
.shar            application/x-shar          Shell    Unix-like    archive that uses 
                                             archive               the Bourne shell  
                                                                   (sh).             
                                                                   A system for      
                                                                   storing multiple  
                                                                   files. LBR        
                                                                   archives          
                                                                   typically         
                                                                   contained files   
                                                      CP/M         processed by SQ,  
.LBR                                         .LBR                  or the archive    
                                                      DOS          itself was        
                                                                   compressed with   
                                                                   SQ. LBR archives  
                                                                   that were         
                                                                   compressed with   
                                                                   SQ ended with the 
                                                                   extension .LQR    
                                                                   An archive format 
                                                                   originally used   
                                                                   mainly for        
                                                                   archiving and     
                                                                   distribution of   
                                                                   the exact,        
                                                                   nearly-exact, or  
                                                                   custom-modified   
                                                                   contents of an    
                                                                   optical storage   
                                                                   medium such as a  
                                                                   CD-ROM or         
                                                      (Various;    DVD-ROM. However, 
.iso             application/x-iso9660-image ISO-9660 cross        it can be used to 
                                             image    platform)    archive the       
                                                                   contents of other 
                                                                   storage media,    
                                                                   selected          
                                                                   partitions,       
                                                                   folders, and/or   
                                                                   files. The        
                                                                   resulting archive 
                                                                   is typically      
                                                                   optimized for     
                                                                   convenient        
                                                                   rendering to      
                                                                   (re-)writable CD  
                                                                   or DVD media.     
                                                                   A library format  
                                                                   used primarily on 
                                                                   the Commodore 64  
                                                                   and 128 lines of  
                                                                   computers. This   
                                                                   bears no          
                                                                   resemblance to    
                                                                   the DOS LBR       
                                                                   format. While     
                                                                   library files     
                                                                   were quick to     
                                                                   implement (a      
.lbr                                                  Commodore    number of         
                                                      64/128       programs exist to 
                                                                   work with them)   
                                                                   they are crippled 
                                                                   in that they      
                                                                   cannot grow with  
                                                                   use: once a file  
                                                                   has been created  
                                                                   it cannot be      
                                                                   amended (files    
                                                                   added, changed or 
                                                                   deleted) without  
                                                                   recreating the    
                                                                   entire file.      
                                                                   An archive format 
                                                                   used by Mozilla   
                                             Mozilla  (Various;    for storing       
.mar                                         ARchive  cross        binary diffs.     
                                                      platform)    Used in           
                                                                   conjunction with  
                                                                   bzip2.            
                                                                   A single file     
                                                                   container/archive 
                                                      (Various;    that can be       
.sbx             application/x-sbx           SeqBox   cross        reconstructed     
                                                      platform)    even after total  
                                                                   loss of file      
                                                                   system            
                                                                   structures.       
                                                                   A common archive  
                                                                   format used on    
                                                                   Unix-like         
                                                                   systems.          
                                                                   Generally used in 
.tar             application/x-tar           Tape     Unix-like    conjunction with  
                                             archive               compressors such  
                                                                   as gzip, bzip2,   
                                                                   compress or xz to 
                                                                   create .tar.gz,   
                                                                   .tar.bz2, .tar.Z  
                                                                   or tar.xz files.  

Compression onlyEdit

File             MIME type^[2]               Official    Platform^[4]         Description     
extension(s)^[1]                             name^[3]    
                                                                              An open source, 
                                                                              patent- and     
                                                                              royalty-free    
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              format. The     
                                                                              compression     
.bz2             application/x-bzip2         bzip2       Unix-like            algorithm is a  
                                                                              Burrows–Wheeler 
                                                                              transform       
                                                                              followed by a   
                                                                              move-to-front   
                                                                              transform and   
                                                                              finally Huffman 
                                                                              coding.         
                                                                              Old compressor  
                                                                              for QNX4 OS.    
                                                                              The compression 
.F, .?XF^[5]                                 Freeze/melt QNX4, Unix-like and  algorithm is a  
                                             [1]         DOS                  modified LZSS,  
                                                                              with an         
                                                                              adaptive        
                                                                              Huffman coding. 
                                                                              GNU Zip, the    
                                                                              primary         
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              format used by  
                                                                              Unix-like       
.gz              application/gzip^[6]        gzip        Unix-like            systems. The    
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              algorithm is    
                                                                              Deflate, which  
                                                                              combines LZSS   
                                                                              with Huffman    
                                                                              coding.         
                                                                              An alternate    
                                                                              LZMA algorithm  
                                                                              implementation, 
.lz              application/x-lzip          lzip        Unix-like            with support    
                                                                              for checksums   
                                                                              and ident       
                                                                              bytes.          
                                                                              Algorithm       
                                                                              developed by    
                                                                              Yann Collet,    
                                                                              designed for    
                                                                              very high       
.lz4                                         LZ4         Unix-like            (de)compression 
                                                                              speeds. It is   
                                                                              an LZ77         
                                                                              derivative,     
                                                                              without entropy 
                                                                              encoding.       
                                                                              The LZMA        
.lzma            application/x-lzma          lzma        Unix-like            compression     
                                                                              algorithm as    
                                                                              used by 7-Zip.  
                                                                              An              
                                                                              implementation  
.lzo             application/x-lzop          lzop        Unix-like            of the LZO data 
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              algorithm.      
                                                                              A compression   
                                                                              program         
                                                                              designed to do  
                                                                              particularly    
.rz                                          rzip        Unix-like            well on very    
                                                                              large files     
                                                                              containing long 
                                                                              distance        
                                                                              redundancy.     
                                                                              A compression   
                                                         Windows              program         
                                                         compress/decompress- designed to do  
.sfark                                       sfArk       Linux and macOS      high            
                                                         decompress only      compression on  
                                                                              SF2 files       
                                                                              (SoundFont).    
                                                                              A compression   
                                                                              format          
                                                                              developed by    
                                                                              Google, and     
                                                                              open-sourced in 
                                                                              2011. Snappy    
                                                                              aims for very   
                                                                              high speeds,    
                                                                              reasonable      
                                                                              compression,    
                                                                              and maximum     
.sz              application/x-snappy-framed Snappy      Unix-like            stability       
                                                                              rather than     
                                                                              maximum         
                                                                              compression or  
                                                                              compatibility   
                                                                              with any other  
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              library. It is  
                                                                              an LZ77         
                                                                              derivative,     
                                                                              without entropy 
                                                                              encoding.       
                                                                              Squeeze: A      
                                                                              program which   
                                                                              compressed      
                                                                              files using     
                                                                              Huffman coding. 
                                                                              A file which    
                                                                              was "squeezed"  
                                                                              had the middle  
                                                                              initial of the  
                                                                              name changed to 
                                                                              "Q", so that a  
                                                                              squeezed text   
                                                                              file would end  
                                                                              with .TQT, a    
                                                                              squeezed        
                                                                              executable      
.?Q?                                         SQ          CP/M and DOS         would end with  
                                                                              .CQM or .EQE.   
                                                                              Typically used  
                                                                              with .LBR       
                                                                              archives,       
                                                                              either by       
                                                                              storing the     
                                                                              squeezed files  
                                                                              in the archive, 
                                                                              or by storing   
                                                                              the files       
                                                                              decompressed    
                                                                              and then        
                                                                              compressing the 
                                                                              archive, which  
                                                                              would have a    
                                                                              name ending in  
                                                                              ".LQR".         
                                                                              A compression   
                                                                              program written 
                                                                              by Steven       
                                                                              Greenberg       
                                                                              implementing    
                                                                              the LZW         
                                                                              algorithm. For  
                                                                              several years   
                                                                              in the CP/M     
                                                                              world when no   
                                                                              implementation  
                                                                              was available   
                                                                              of ARC,         
                                                                              CRUNCHed files  
                                                                              stored in .LBR  
                                                                              archives were   
.?Z?                                         CRUNCH      CP/M and DOS         very popular.   
                                                                              CRUNCH's        
                                                                              implementation  
                                                                              of LZW had a    
                                                                              somewhat        
                                                                              unusual feature 
                                                                              of modifying    
                                                                              and             
                                                                              occasionally    
                                                                              clearing the    
                                                                              code table in   
                                                                              memory when it  
                                                                              became full,    
                                                                              resulting in a  
                                                                              few percent     
                                                                              better          
                                                                              compression on  
                                                                              many files.     
                                                                              A compression   
                                                                              format using    
                                                                              LZMA2 to yield  
                                                                              high            
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              ratios. The     
.xz              application/x-xz            xz          Unix-like            LZMA algorithm  
                                                                              is an LZ77      
                                                                              derivative,     
                                                                              with entropy    
                                                                              encoding in the 
                                                                              form of range   
                                                                              encoding.       
                                                                              The traditional 
.z               application/x-compress      pack        Unix-like            Huffman coding  
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              format.         
                                                                              The traditional 
.Z               application/x-compress      compress    Unix-like            LZW compression 
                                                                              format.         
                                                                              Algorithm       
                                                                              developed by    
                                                                              Yann Collet at  
                                                                              Facebook,       
                                                                              combining high  
                                                                              speed and high  
                                                                              compression. It 
.zst             application/zstd            Zstandard   Cross-platform       is an LZ77      
                                                                              derivative,     
                                                                              with entropy    
                                                                              encoding in the 
                                                                              form of Finite  
                                                                              State Entropy   
                                                                              and Huffman     
                                                                              coding.         
                                                                              Compression     
                                                                              format(s) used  
                                                                              by some DOS and 
                                                                              Windows install 
                                                                              programs.       
                                                                              MS-DOS includes 
                                                                              expand.exe to   
                                                                              decompress its  
.??_                                                     MS-DOS/Windows       install files.  
                                                                              The compressed  
                                                                              files are       
                                                                              created with a  
                                                                              matching        
                                                                              compress.exe    
                                                                              command. The    
                                                                              compression     
                                                                              algorithm is    
                                                                              LZSS.           

Archiving and compressionEdit

File                                                                          Creation     Restoration  Restorable                                                    
extension(s)^[1] MIME type^[2]                           Official name^[3]    platform^[4] platform^[7] with free    Description
                                                                                                        software^[8] 
.7z              application/x-7z-compressed             7z                   Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Open source file format. Used by 7-Zip.          
                                                                                           macOS,                    Based on 7z. Preserves Spotlight metadata,       
                                                                                           restoration               resource forks, owner/group information, dates   
                                                                                           on different              and other data which would be otherwise lost     
.s7z             application/x-7z-compressed             7zX                  macOS        platforms is Yes          with compression.                                
                                                                                           possible                                                                   
                                                                                           although not              Made obsolete by the introduction of             
                                                                                           immediate                 AppleDouble-encoded 7z archives (Macintosh       
                                                                                                                     only).                                           
.ace             application/x-ace-compressed            ACE                  Windows      Multiple     Yes          Proprietary format                               
                                                                                                                     A format that compresses and doubly encrypt the  
                                                                                                                     data (AES256 and CAS256) avoiding brute force    
                                                                                                                     attacks, also hide files in an AFA file. It has  
.afa             application/x-astrotite-afa             AFA                  UNIX-like    UNIX-like    No           two ways to safeguard data integrity and         
                                                                                                                     subsequent repair of the file if has an error    
                                                                                                                     (repair with AstroA2P (online) or Astrotite      
                                                                                                                     (offline)).                                      
.alz             application/x-alz-compressed            ALZip                Windows      Multiple     Yes          A mainly Korean format designed for very large   
                                                                                                                     archives.                                        
.apk             application/vnd.android.package-archive APK                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Android application package (variant of JAR file 
                                                                                                                     format).                                         
                                                                                                                     Very popular in the early days of BBSes, one of  
.arc, .ark       application/octet-stream                ARC                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          the first to offer compression and archiving in  
                                                                                                                     a single program. Largely replaced by PKZIP.     
                                                                              Windows,     Windows,                  Open source file format developed by Bulat       
.arc, .cdx       application/x-freearc                   FreeArc              Linux        Linux        Yes          Ziganshin. A "FreeArc Next" version is under     
                                                                                                                     development which includes Zstandard support.    
                                                                              Originally                             Competitor to PKZIP in the 1990s, offered better 
.arj             application/x-arj                       ARJ                  DOS, now     Multiple     Yes          multi-part archive handling.                     
                                                                              multiple     
.b1              application/x-b1                        B1                   Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Open archive format, used by B1 Free Archiver    
                                                                                                                     (http://dev.b1.org/standard/archive-format.html) 
.b6z                                                     B6Z                  macOS        Multiple     Yes          Compressed archive format B6Zip                  
.ba                                                      Scifer               Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Binary Archive with external header              
.bh                                                      BlakHole                                       Yes          Proprietary format from the ZipTV Compression    
                                                                                                                     Components                                       
                                                                                                                     The Microsoft Windows native archive format,     
.cab             application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed       Cabinet              Windows      Multiple     Yes          which is also used by many commercial installers 
                                                                                                                     such as WISE.                                    
                                                                                                                     Created by Yaakov Gringeler; released last in    
                                                                              Originally   Originally                2003 (Compressia 1.0.0.1 beta), now apparently   
.car                                                     Compressia archive   DOS, now DOS DOS, now DOS Yes          defunct. Free trial of 30 days lets user create  
                                                                              and Windows  and Windows               and extract archives; after that it is possible  
                                                                                                                     to extract, but not to create.                   
                                                                              Windows,                                                                                
.cfs             application/x-cfs-compressed            Compact File Set     Unix-like    Multiple     Yes          Open source file format.
                                                                              including    
                                                                              macOS        
                                                                              Classic Mac                            Compact Pro archive, a common archiver used on   
.cpt                                                     Compact Pro          OS           Multiple     Yes          Mac platforms until about Mac OS 7.5.x. Competed 
                                                                                                                     with StuffIt; now obsolete.                      
                                                                              Unix-like    Unix-like                                                                  
.dar             application/x-dar                       Disk Archiver        including    including    Yes          Open source file format. Files are compressed    
                                                                              macOS        macOS,                    individually with either gzip, bzip2 or lzo.
                                                                                           Windows      
.dd                                                      DiskDoubler          Classic Mac                            obsolete                                         
                                                                              OS           
.dgc             application/x-dgc-compressed            DGCA                 Windows      Windows      
                                                                                                                     Supports "Internet-enabled" disk images, which,  
                                                                                                                     once downloaded, are automatically decompressed, 
                                                                                                                     mounted, have the contents extracted, and thrown 
                                                                                           macOS,                    away. Currently, Safari is the only browser that 
.dmg             application/x-apple-diskimage           Apple Disk Image     macOS        Windows,     Yes          supports this form of extraction; however, the   
                                                                                           Linux                     images can be manually extracted as well. This   
                                                                                                                     format can also be password-protected or         
                                                                                                                     encrypted with 128-bit or 256-bit AES            
                                                                                                                     encryption.                                      
.ear                                                     EAR                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Enterprise Java Archive archive                  
.gca             application/x-gca-compressed            GCA                                                         The predecessor of DGCA.                         
                                                                              Linux,       Linux,                    Optimized for (but not limited to) genomic file  
.genozip                                                 Genozip              macOS,       macOS,       No           types such as FASTQ, BAM, VCF                    
                                                                              Windows      Windows      
                                                                              Originally   Originally   Yes, but may                                                  
.ha                                                      [2]                  DOS          DOS          be covered   DOS era format; uses arithmetic/Markov coding
                                                                                                        by patents   
.hki                                                     WinHKI               MS Windows   MS Windows   No           HKI                                              
.ice                                                     ICE                  Windows      Windows      Yes          Produced by ICEOWS program. Excels at text file  
                                                                                                                     compression.                                     
.jar             application/java-archive                JAR                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Java archive, compatible with ZIP files          
                                                                                                                     Open sourced archiver with compression using the 
.kgb                                                     KGB Archiver         Multiple     Multiple     Yes          PAQ family of algorithms and optional            
                                                                                                                     encryption.                                      
                                                                              Originally                                                                              
.lzh, .lha       application/x-lzh                       LHA                  DOS, now     Multiple     Yes          The standard format on Amiga.
                                                                              multiple     
                                                                                                                     Archiver originally used on The Amiga. Now       
.lzx             application/x-lzx                       LZX                  Amiga                                  copied by Microsoft to use in their .cab and     
                                                                                                                     .chm files.                                      
                                                                                                                     file format from NoGate Consultings, a rival     
                                                                                                                     from ARC-Compressor.                             
.pak                                                     PAK                  HP NonStop   HP NonStop   Yes^[9]                                                       
                                                                                                                     .pak was also briefly used by the short lived    
                                                                                                                     MSDOS PKPAK program.                             
                                                                                                                     A disk image archive format that supports        
.partimg                                                 PartImage            Multiple     Multiple     Yes          several compression methods as well as splitting 
                                                                                                                     the archive into smaller pieces.                 
.paq6, .paq7,                                                                 Unix-like    Unix-like                 An experimental open source packager             
.paq8 and                                                PAQ                  and Windows  and Windows  Yes          (http://mattmahoney.net/dc)                      
variants         
                                                                                                                     Open source archiver supporting authenticated    
                                                                                                                     encryption, cascaded encryption, volume          
.pea                                                     PeaZip               Linux and    Linux and    Yes          spanning, customizable object level and volume   
                                                                              Windows      Windows                   level integrity checks (form CRCs to SHA-512 and 
                                                                                                                     Whirlpool hashes), fast deflate based            
                                                                                                                     compression                                      
                                                                                                                     A package format to enable distribution of       
.phar                                                    PHAR                 Multiple     Multiple     Yes          applications and libraries by bundling many PHP  
                                                                                                                     code files and other resources (e.g. images,     
                                                                                                                     stylesheets, etc.) into a single archive file    
                                                                                                                     The format from the PIM - a freeware compression 
.pim                                                     PIM                  Windows      Windows      Yes          tool by Ilia Muraviev. It uses an LZP-based      
                                                                                                                     compression algorithm with set of filters for    
                                                                                                                     executable, image and audio files.               
.pit                                                     PackIt               Classic Mac                            obsolete                                         
                                                                              OS           
                                                                                                                     Used for data in games written using the         
.qda                                                     Quadruple D          Windows      Windows                   Quadruple D library for Delphi. Uses byte pair   
                                                                                                                     compression.                                     
                                                                              Originally                             A proprietary archive format, second in          
.rar             application/x-rar-compressed            RAR                  DOS, now     Multiple     Yes          popularity to .zip files.                        
                                                                              multiple     
                                                                                                                     The format from a commercial archiving package.  
                                                                                                                     Odd among commercial packages in that they focus 
                                                                                                                     on incorporating experimental algorithms with    
.rk                                                      RK and WinRK [3]     Multiple     Multiple     No           the highest possible compression (at the expense 
                                                                                                                     of speed and memory), such as PAQ, PPMD and PPMZ 
                                                                                                                     (PPMD with unlimited-length strings), as well as 
                                                                                                                     a proprietary algorithms.                        
                                                                                                                     SDAs refer to Self Dissolving ARC files, and are 
                                                                                                                     based on the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128      
                                                                                                                     versions of ARC, originally written by Chris     
                                                                              Commodore    Commodore                 Smeets. While the files share the same           
.sda                                                     Self Dissolving      64,          64,          Yes          extension, they are not compatible between       
                                                         ARChive              Commodore    Commodore                 platforms. That is, an SDA created on a          
                                                                              128          128                       Commodore 64 but run on a Commodore 128 in       
                                                                                                                     Commodore 128 mode will crash the machine, and   
                                                                                                                     vice versa. The intended successor to SDA is     
                                                                                                                     SFX.                                             
                                                                                           Classic Mac               A pre-Mac OS X Self-Extracting Archive format.   
.sea                                                     Self Extracting      Classic Mac  OS                        StuffIt, Compact Pro, Disk Doubler and others    
                                                         Archive              OS           (implicitly)              could create .sea files, though the StuffIt      
                                                                                                                     versions were the most common.                   
.sen                                                     Scifer               Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Scifer Archive with internal header              
                                                                                                                     SFX is a Self Extracting Archive which uses the  
                                                                                                                     LHArc compression algorithm. It was originally   
                                                                              Commodore    Commodore                 developed by Chris Smeets on the Commodore       
.sfx                                                     Self Extracting      64,          64,          Yes          platform, and runs primarily using the CS-DOS    
                                                         Archive              Commodore    Commodore                 extension for the Commodore 128. Unlike its      
                                                                              128          128                       predecessor SDA, SFX files will run on both the  
                                                                                                                     Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 regardless of     
                                                                                                                     which machine they were created on.              
                                                                                                                     An archive format designed for the Apple II      
                                                                                                                     series of computers. The canonical               
                                                                              Originally                             implementation is ShrinkIt, which can operate on 
.shk                                                     NuFX                 Apple II,    Multiple     Yes          disk images as well as files. Preferred          
                                                                              now multiple                           compression algorithm is a combination of RLE    
                                                                                                                     and 12-bit LZW. Archives can be manipulated with 
                                                                                                                     the command-line NuLib tool, or the              
                                                                                                                     Windows-based CiderPress.                        
                                                                              Originally   Originally                A compression format common on Apple Macintosh   
.sit             application/x-stuffit                   StuffIt              Classic Mac  Classic Mac  Yes          computers. The free StuffIt Expander is          
                                                                              OS, now      OS, now                   available for Windows and macOS.                 
                                                                              multiple     multiple     
                                                                                                                     The replacement for the .sit format that         
                                                                                                                     supports more compression methods, UNIX file     
                                                                                                                     permissions, long file names, very large files,  
.sitx            application/x-stuffitx                  StuffIt X            Multiple     Multiple     Yes          more encryption options, data specific           
                                                                                                                     compressors (JPEG, Zip, PDF, 24-bit image, MP3). 
                                                                                                                     The free StuffIt Expander is available for       
                                                                                                                     Windows and OS X.                                
.sqx                                                     SQX                  Windows      Windows      Yes          A royalty-free compressing format                
.tar.gz, .tgz,                                                                                                       The "tarball" format combines tar archives with  
.tar.Z,                                                                                                              a file-based compression scheme (usually gzip).  
.tar.bz2,                                                tar with gzip,                                              Commonly used for source and binary distribution 
.tbz2, .tar.lz,  application/x-gtar                      compress, bzip2,     Multiple     Multiple     Yes          on Unix-like platforms, widely available         
.tlz. .tar.xz,                                           lzip, xz, or zstd                                           elsewhere. Xarchiver supports the .tar.zst       
.txz, .tar.zst                                                                                                       Archive/Compression format on Unix-like          
                                                                                                                     platforms.                                       
                                                                                                                     UltraCompressor 2.3 was developed to act as an   
                                                                                                                     alternative to the then popular PKZIP            
.uc .uc0 .uc2                                            UltraCompressor II   DOS          DOS                       application. The main feature of the application 
.ucn .ur2 .ue2                                                                                                       is its ability to create large archives. This    
                                                                                                                     means that compressed archives with the UC2 file 
                                                                                                                     extension can hold almost 1 million files.       
                                                                                                                     Based on PAQ, RZM, CSC, CCM, and 7zip. The       
.uca                                                     PerfectCompress^[10] Windows      Windows      No           format consists of a PAQ, RZM, CSC, or CCM       
                                                                                                                     compressed file and a manifest with compression  
                                                                                                                     settings stored in a 7z archive.                 
.uha                                                     UHarc                DOS/Windows  DOS/Windows  Yes          A high compression rate archive format           
                                                                                                                     originally for DOS.                              
.war                                                     WAR                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Web Application archive (Java-based web app)     
.wim             application/x-ms-wim                    Windows Image        Windows      Windows      Yes          File-based disk image format developed to deploy 
                                                                                                                     Microsoft Windows.                               
.xar             application/x-xar                       XAR                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          
                                                                                                                     Native format of the Open Source KiriKiri Visual 
                                                                                                                     Novel engine. Uses combination of block          
                                                                                                                     splitting and zlib compression. The filenames    
                                                                                                                     and pathes are stored in UTF-16 format. For      
.xp3                                                     KiriKiri             Windows      Windows      Yes          integrity check, the Adler-32 hashsum is used.   
                                                                                                                     For many commercial games, the files are         
                                                                                                                     encrypted (and decoded on runtime) via so-called 
                                                                                                                     "cxdec" module, which implements xor-based       
                                                                                                                     encryption.                                      
                                                                                                                     Yamazaki zipper archive. Compression format used 
.yz1                                                     YZ1                  Windows,     Windows,     Yes          in DeepFreezer archiver utility created by       
                                                                              DOS, Linux   DOS, Linux                Yamazaki Satoshi. Read and write support exists  
                                                                                                                     in TUGZip, IZArc and ZipZag                      
                                                                              Originally                             The most widely used compression format on       
.zip, .zipx      application/zip                         ZIP                  DOS, now     Multiple     Yes          Microsoft Windows. Commonly used on Macintosh    
                                                                              multiple                               and Unix systems as well.                        
.zoo             application/x-zoo                       zoo                  Multiple     Multiple     Yes          
                                                                                                                     Journaling (append-only) archive format with     
                                                                                                                     rollback capability. Supports deduplication and  
.zpaq                                                    ZPAQ                 Multiple     Multiple     Yes          incremental update based on last-modified dates. 
                                                                                                                     Multi-threaded. Compresses in LZ77, BWT, and     
                                                                                                                     context mixing formats. Open source.             
.zz                                                      Zzip                 Multiple     Multiple     Yes          Archiver with a compression algorithm based on   
                                                                                                                     the Burrows–Wheeler transform method.            

Data recoveryEdit

File             MIME type^[2]      Official         Platform^[4] Description      
extension(s)^[1]                    name^[3]         
                                                                  File format used 
                                                                  by dvdisaster to 
                                    dvdisaster                    be used for data 
.ecc                                error-correction Multiple     recovery when    
                                    file                          discs become     
                                                                  damaged or       
                                                                  partially        
                                                                  unreadable.      
                                                                  Archive with     
                                                                  forward error    
                                                                  correction and   
.ecsbx                              Error-correcting Multiple     sector level     
                                    SeqBox                        recoverability.  
                                                                  Error-correcting 
                                                                  version of       
                                                                  SeqBox.          
                                                                  File format used 
                                                                  in conjunction   
                                                                  with any archive 
                                                                  format to        
.par                                                              provide          
.par2            application/x-par2 Parchive file    Multiple     redundancy and   
                                                                  data recovery,   
                                                                  most often in    
                                                                  newsgroup        
                                                                  distribution of  
                                                                  binary files.    
                                                                  File format used 
                                                                  with WinRAR rar  
                                                                  volumes. The     
                                                                  data recovery is 
                                                                  an optional data 
                                                                  redundancy which 
                                                                  is provided in   
                                                                  the form of open 
.rev                                WinRAR recovery  Multiple     recovery records 
                                    volume                        and/or recovery  
                                                                  volumes,         
                                                                  allowing         
                                                                  reconstruction   
                                                                  of good archives 
                                                                  (including       
                                                                  reconstruction   
                                                                  of entirely      
                                                                  volumes)         

ComparisonEdit

  Containers and compressionEdit

                Filename  Created          Introduced                           Integrity    Recovery     Encryption    Unicode    Modification                            
Format          extension by               in           Based on    Compression check        record       supported     filenames  date         Pre-processing License
                                                                                                                                   resolution   
Archive (ar)    .a, .ar   CSRG             1971         Original    No          No           No           No            No         1 s          ?              ?           
                                           1983 Unix                            Partial,                                                                                   
cpio            .cpio     Bell Labs        System V     ?           No          select       No           No            No         1 s          No             ?
                                                                                formats only 
                                                                                                                                                               Public      
Shell Archive                                                                                                                      arbitrary                   domain      
(shar and       .shar,    James Gosling,   1994 4.4BSD  Original    No          Yes,         Partial      Partial       Partial    (typically 1 No             (shar 1.x - 
makeself)       .run      Alan Hewett                                           commonly MD5                                       s)                          3.x),       
                                                                                                                                                               GPL (shar   
                                                                                                                                                               4.x)        
                                                                                Partial,                                                                                   
                                                                                metadata     
                                                                                only. Full   
Tape Archive    .tar      Bell Labs        1975 Version ?           No          integrity    No           No            Optional^1 1 s          No             ?
(tar)                                      6 Unix                               providable   
                                                                                by filters   
                                                                                such as      
                                                                                gzip.        
Extended TAR                                            Sun                                                                        arbitrary                               
format (pax)    .tar      OpenGroup        2001         proposal +  No          metadata     No           No            Yes        (typically 1 No             ?
                                                        TAR                                                                        ns)          
BagIt           –         The Library of   2007         file system No          Yes          No           No            Yes        No           ?              ?           
                          Congress         
                                                        LZMA,                                                                                                              
                                                        LZMA2,                  Yes,                      Yes,                                                 LGPL,       
7z              .7z       Igor Pavlov      2000         Bzip2,      Yes         CRC32        No           AES-256       Yes        100 ns^[11]  Yes            Public      
                                                        PPMd,                                                                                                  domain
                                                        Deflate     
ACE             .ace      Marcel Lemke     1998^[12]    LZ77        Yes         Yes          Yes          Yes, Blowfish Yes        2s           ?              Proprietary 
                                                                                                                                                               software    
AFA             .afa      Vicente          2009         Original    Yes         Yes          Yes          Yes, AES and  Yes        ?            ?              ?           
                          Sánchez-Alarcos                                                                 CAST          
ARC             .arc      Thom Henderson   1985         ?           Yes         CRC16        No           weak XOR only No         2s           ?              ?           
                          (SEA)            
                                                        AR001 and                                         weak XOR with                                        Proprietary 
ARJ             .arj      Robert Jung      1991         AR002       Yes         Yes          Yes          initial       No         ?            ?              software    
                                                                                                          constant      
B1              .b1       Catalina Group   2011         LZMA        Yes         Yes          No           Yes, AES      Yes        ?            ?              ?           
                          Ltd              
                                                                                Optional                                                                                   
Cabinet         .cab      Microsoft        1992 Windows Deflate     Yes         PKCS7        No           Optional      Yes        2 s          ?              ?
                                           3.1                                  Authenticode              (with SDK)
                                                                                signature    
Compact File    .cfs      Joe Lowe (Pismo  2008         ZIP/LZMA    Yes         Yes          ?            Yes           Yes        ?            ?              Free        
Set                       Technic Inc.)                                                                                                                        software    
Compact Pro     .cpt      Bill Goodman     1990 (as     Original    Yes         Yes          No           Yes           ?          ?            ?              Proprietary 
                                           "Compactor")                                                                                                        software    
Disk Archive    .dar      Denis Corbin     2002         Original    Yes         Yes          Yes^2        Yes           Yes        1 µs         Yes            GPLv2       
(DAR)           
DGCA            .dgc      Shin-ichi        2001         GCA         Yes         Yes          Yes          Yes           Yes        ?            ?              ?           
                          Tsuruta          
                                                                                                          Yes, AES,                                                        
FreeArc         .arc      Bulat Ziganshin  2006         LZMA, PPMd, Yes         Yes          Yes          Blowfish,     Yes        ?            ?              GPLv2
                                                        TTA                                               Twofish and   
                                                                                                          Serpent       
                .lzh,     Haruyasu                                              Only on                                                                                    
LHA (also LZH)  .lha      Yoshizaki        1988         Frozen      Yes         recent LHA   No           No            No         1–2 s        ?              ?
                                                                                releases     
                          Jonathan Forbes                                       Only on                                                                                    
LZX             .lzx      and              1995         LZ77        Yes         recent LZX   ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              ?
                          Tomi Poutanen                                         releases     
                .iso,                                   High Sierra                                                                                                        
ISO image       .img,     ISO 9660         1988         Format      No          ?            ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              ?
                .ima      
SparkFS         .arc      David Pilling    1989         ?           Yes         ?            ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              ?           
WinMount format .mou      ?                2007         ?           Yes         Yes          Yes          Yes           Yes        ?            ?              Proprietary 
                                                                                                                                                               software    
Macintosh Disk  .dmg      Apple Computer   2001 Mac OS  Original    Yes         Yes          ?            Yes           ?          ?            ?              ?           
Image                                      X            
Partition Image           François Dupoux                                                                                                                                  
(PartImage)     .partimg  and              2000         ?           Yes         ?            ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              GPLv2
                          Franck Ladurelle 
PAQ Family      .paq#*,                                                                                                                                                    
(Several        .lpaq#*   Matt Mahoney     2002–2006    Original    Yes         ?            ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              ?
formats)^4      
                                                                                Yes Adler32,                                                                               
                                                                                CRC32,                    Yes                                                              
                                                        Original,               CRC64, MD5,               Authenticated 
PEA             .pea      Giorgio Tani     2006         Deflate     Yes         SHA1,        No           Encryption,   Yes system Yes          ?              Public
                                                        based                   RIPEMD-160,               AES128 and    dependent  arbitrary                   domain
                                                        compression             SHA256,                   AES256 in EAX 
                                                                                SHA512,                   mode
                                                                                Whirlpool    
PIM             .pim      Ilia Muraviev    2004–2008    Original    Yes         Yes          No           No            Yes        No           ?              ?           
Quadruple D     .qda      Taku Hayase (aka 1997         ?           Yes         ?            ?            ?             ?          ?            ?              ?           
                          sandman)         
                                                                                Yes,                      Yes,                     2 s, 1 s,                               
RAR             .rar      Eugene Roshal    1993         Original    Yes         CRC32,       Yes,         AES-256 for   Yes,       6.5536 ms,   Dropped        Proprietary 
                                                                                BLAKE2       Reed–Solomon RAR 5.0       UTF-8      25.6 µs or                  software
                                                                                                          archives                 100 ns^3     
                                                                                                          Yes, AES,                                                        
RK              .rk       M Software, Ltd. 2004         Original    Yes         Yes          No           Square,       Yes        1 s          ?              ?
                                                                                                          Twofish       
NuFX            .shk      Andy Nicholas    1989         Original    Yes         CRC16        No           No            No         1 s          ?              ?           
StuffIt (also   .sit      Raymond Lau      1987         ?           Yes         ?            ?            Yes           ?          ?            ?              Proprietary 
SIT)                                                                                                                                                           software    
StuffIt X (also           Aladdin/Allume                                                                  Yes,                                                 Proprietary 
SITx)           .sitx     Systems          2002         ?           Yes         ?            Optional     RC4,Blowfish, Yes        ?            ?              software    
                                                                                                          AES,DES       
                .uc .uc0                                LZ77 and                                                                                                           
UltraCompressor .uc2      Nico de Vries    1992–1996    Huffman     Yes         Yes          Yes          Yes, triple   ?          ?            ?              ?
II              .ucn .ur2                               coding                                            DES
                .ue2      
                .wim,                                                                                                                                                      
Windows Image   .swm,     Microsoft        2006         Original    Yes         Yes          No           Partial^5     Yes        100 ns       ?              ?
                .esd      
                                                                                                                                   1–2 s,                                  
ZIP             .zip      Phil Katz        1989         Deflate     Yes         Yes          No           Yes, AES      Yes        depending on ?              ?
                                                                                                                                   version      
ZPAQ            .zpaq     Matt Mahoney     2009         PAQ         Yes         Yes, SHA-1   No           Yes, AES-256  Yes        ?            ?              MIT, Public 
                                                                                                                                                               domain      

    NotesEdit

   ^1 While the original tar format uses the ASCII character encoding,
   current implementations use the UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding, which is
   backwards compatible with ASCII.
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^2 Supports the external Parchive program (par2).
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^3 From 3.20 release RAR can store modification, creation and last access
   time with the precision up to 0.0000001 second (= 0.1 µs). [4] [5]
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^4 The PAQ family (with its lighter weight derivative LPAQ) went through
   many revisions, each revision suggested its own extension. For example:
   ".paq9a".
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^5 WIM can store the ciphertext of encrypted files on an NTFS volume, but
   such files can only by decrypted if an administrator extracts the file to
   an NTFS volume, and the decryption key is available (typically from the
   file's original owner on the same Windows installation). Microsoft has
   also distributed some download versions of the Windows operating system as
   encrypted WIM files, but via an external encryption process and not a
   feature of WIM.

     * Purpose: Archive formats are used for backups, mobility, and
       archiving. Many archive formats compress the data to consume less
       storage space and result in quicker transfer times as the same data is
       represented by fewer bytes. Another benefit is that files are combined
       into one archive file which has less overhead for managing or
       transferring. There are numerous compression algorithms available to
       losslessly compress archived data and some algorithms work better
       (smaller archive or faster compression) with particular data types.
       Archive formats are also used by most operating systems to package
       software for easier distribution and installation than binary
       executables.
     * Filename extension: The DOS and Windows operating systems required
       filenames to include an extension (of at least one, and typically 3
       characters) to identify the file type and use. Filename extensions
       must be unique for each type of file. Many operating systems identify
       a file's type from its contents without the need for an extension in
       its name. However, the use of three-character extensions has been
       embraced as a useful and efficient shorthand for identifying file
       types.
     * Integrity check: Archive files are often stored on magnetic media,
       which is subject to data storage errors. Early tape media had a higher
       rate of errors than they do today. Many archive formats contain extra
       error-correction information to detect storage or transmission errors,
       and the software used to read the archive files contains logic to
       detect and possibly correct errors.
     * Recovery record: Many archive formats contain redundant data embedded
       in the files in order to detect data storage or transmission errors,
       and the software used to read the archive files contains logic to
       detect and correct errors.
     * Encryption: In order to protect the data being stored or transferred
       from being read if intercepted, many archive formats include the
       capability to encrypt the data. There are multiple mathematical
       algorithms available to encrypt data.

  Software packaging and distributionEdit

          Filename      Created      Introduced            Integrity    Recovery Encryption       Unicode   Modification 
Format    extension     by           in         Based on   check        record   supported        filenames date         
                                                                                                            resolution   
Debian                               1994       ar, tar,                                                                 
package   .deb          Debian       Debian     and gzip   Yes          No       No               Yes       1 s
(deb)                                0.91       
Macintosh .pkg, .mpkg                1989       pax and                                                                  
Installer (metapackage) NeXT         NeXTSTEP   gzip       Yes          ?        ?                Yes       ?
                                     1.0        
RPM                                  1995 Red                                                                            
Package   .rpm          Red Hat      Hat Linux  cpio and   Yes          ?        ?                ?         1 s
Manager                              1.0        gzip
(RPM)     
Slackware               Patrick      1993       tar and                                                                  
Package   .tgz          Volkerding   Slackware  gzip       Yes          No       No               ?         ?
                                     1.0        
Windows                                         OLE        Optional                                                      
Installer                            2000       Structured PKCS7        
(also     .msi          Microsoft    Windows    Storage,   Authenticode No       No               No        2 s
MSI)                                 2000       Cabinet    Signature    
                                                and SQL    
Java                    Sun          1997 JDK                                                                            
Archive   .jar          Microsystems 1.1        PKZIP      Yes          No       ?                Yes       ?
(JAR^1)   
Google                               2009                                                                                
Chrome    .crx          Google       (Chrome    Zip        ?            ?        Yes^[13]^[failed ?         ?
extension                            4.0)                                        verification]
package   
          .pkg.tar.zst,              2001       tar and                                                                  
Pacman    .pkg.tar (no  Judd Vinet   (before    zstd^[14]  Yes          No       No               Yes       1 s
          compression)               ArchLinux  (formerly  
                                     0.1)       xz)        

    NotesEdit

   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^1 Not to be confused with the archiver JAR written by Robert K. Jung,
   which produces ".j" files.

  FeaturesEdit

  Archive  Built-in    Self-extracting Directory POSIX      ACLs Alternate data  
  format   compression                 structure attributes      streams         
  cpio     No^1        No              Yes       Yes        No   ?               
  tar      No^1        No              Yes       Yes        Some (in Solaris     
                                                                 implementation) 
  dar      Yes^3       No              Yes       Yes        Yes  Yes             
  ar       No          No              No        Yes        No   ?               
  pax      No          No              Yes       Yes        Yes  ?               
  dump     No^1        No              Yes       Yes        Yes  ?               
  shar     No          Yes             Yes       Yes        No   ?               
  makeself Yes         Yes             Yes       Yes        Yes  ?               
  zip      Yes         Yes^2           Yes       No         ?    ?               
  rar      Yes         Yes^2           Yes       No         ?    Yes             
  ace      Yes         ?               Yes       No         ?    ?               
  arj      Yes         Yes^2           Yes       No         No   ?               
  zoo      Yes         ?               Yes       No         ?    ?               
  ISO 9660                                       (with Rock                      
  (CD-ROM) No^1        No              Yes       Ridge      No   ?
                                                 extension) 
  cab      Yes         Yes^2           ?         No         ?    ?               
  rpm      Yes         No              Yes       Yes        ?    ?               
  deb      Yes         No              Yes       Yes        ?    ?               
  7z       Yes         Yes             Yes       No         ?    ?               
  Archive  Built-in    Self-extracting Directory POSIX      ACLs Alternate data  
  format   compression                 Structure attributes      streams         

See alsoEdit

     * Archive file
     * Comparison of file archivers
     * Comparison of file systems
     * List of file systems
     * Solid compression
     * zlib

  NotesEdit

   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^1 Compression is not a built-in feature of the formats, however, the
   resulting archive can be compressed with any algorithm of choice. Several
   implementations include functionality to do this automatically
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^2 Most implementations can optionally produce a self-extracting
   executable
   Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
   ^3 Per-file compression with gzip, bzip2, lzo, xz, lzma (as opposed to
   compressing the whole archive). An individual can choose not to compress
   already compressed filenames based on their suffix as well.

FootnotesEdit

    1. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d File extensions may differ across platforms. The case of
       these extensions may differ on case-insensitive platforms.
    2. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d MIME media types may be conjectural. Very few have been
       officially registered with the IANA. Compression-only formats should
       often be denoted by the media type of the decompressed data, with a
       content coding indicating the compression format.
    3. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Official names may be disputed.
    4. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Creation platform indicates the platform(s) under which
       a format can be created.
    5. ^ If attaching .F to the file name is not possible with the DOS
       operating system, the second and third character of the filename
       extension are replaced by XF.
    6. ^ The 'application/zlib' and 'application/gzip' Media Types.
       doi:10.17487/RFC6713. RFC 6713. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
    7. ^ Restoration platform indicates the platform(s) under which a format
       can be restored/extracted. Most file formats can be understood by more
       than one platform.
    8. ^ "Restorable with free software" indicates whether the format can be
       restored using an extraction tool that is free software.
    9. ^ Tandem Unpak GUI http://sybond.web.id/project/?p=8
   10. ^
       Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
       "PerfectCompress". Archived from the original on 2012-07-23. Retrieved
       2009-11-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown
       (link)
   11. ^
       Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
       "7-Zip / Discussion / Open Discussion: File times: Creation, access -
       precision".
   12. ^ http://www.hugi.scene.org/online/coding/hugi%2012%20-%20coace.htm
   13. ^
       Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
       "Set or change a sync passphrase – Chrome Help".
   14. ^
       Link: mw-deduplicated-inline-style
       "Now using Zstandard instead of xz for package compression".
   Retrieved from
   "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_archive_formats&oldid=1076524666"
   Last edited on 11 March 2022, at 15:19
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