Libarchive

Last updated

libarchive
Initial release2003;22 years ago (2003) [1]
Stable release
3.8.4 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 1 December 2025
Repository
Written in C
Operating system cross-platform
Type library
License New BSD License [3]
Website libarchive.org   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

libarchive is a free and open-source library for reading and writing various archive and compression formats. It is written in C and works on most Unix-like systems and Windows. [3]

Contents

History

libarchive's development was started in 2003 as part of the FreeBSD project. [1] During the early years it was led by the FreeBSD project, but later it became an independent project. [4] It was first released with FreeBSD 5.3 in November 2004. [5]

libarchive

libarchive automatically detects and reads archive formats. [6] If the archive is compressed, libarchive also detects and handles compression formats before evaluating the archive. [6] libarchive is designed to minimize the copying of data internally for optimal performance. [7]

Supported archive formats: [8]

Utilities

libarchive provides command-line utilities called bsdtar and bsdcpio. [3] These are complete re-implementation based on libarchive. [9] [10] These are the default system tar and cpio on FreeBSD, NetBSD, macOS and Windows. [5]

There is also bsdcat, designed to decompress a file to the standard output like zcat. [11]

Users

libarchive was originally developed for FreeBSD, but is also used in NetBSD and macOS as part of those operating systems. [5]

bsdtar has been included in Windows since Windows 10 April 2018 Update. [12] In May 2023, Microsoft announced Windows 11 will natively support additional archive formats such as 7z and RAR via libarchive. [13]

References

  1. 1 2 "ReleaseNotes". GitHub. Archived from the original on 12 March 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  2. ↑ libarchive. "Release Libarchive 3.8.4 · libarchive/libarchive" . Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 "libarchive". www.libarchive.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  4. ↑ "ReleaseEngineering". GitHub. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 "LibarchiveUsers". GitHub. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  6. 1 2 libarchive(3)  –  FreeBSD Library Functions Manual
  7. ↑ "ZeroCopy". GitHub. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "Libarchive Formats". GitHub. 17 January 2020. Archived from the original on 11 September 2020.
  9. ↑ bsdtar(1)  –  FreeBSD General Commands Manual
  10. ↑ bsdcpio(1)  –  FreeBSD General Commands Manual
  11. ↑ bsdcat(1)  –  FreeBSD General Commands Manual
  12. ↑ "Tar and Curl Come to Windows!". Microsoft Community Hub. 21 March 2019. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  13. ↑ Panay, Panos (23 May 2023). "Bringing the power of AI to Windows 11 - unlocking a new era of productivity for customers and developers with Windows Copilot and Dev Home". Windows Developer Blog. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
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