Libarchive

Last updated

libarchive
Initial release2003;20 years ago (2003) [1]
Stable release
3.7.2 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 11 September 2023
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]

Related Research Articles

In computing, tar is a computer software utility for collecting many files into one archive file, often referred to as a tarball, for distribution or backup purposes. The name is derived from "tape archive", as it was originally developed to write data to sequential I/O devices with no file system of their own, such as devices that use magnetic tape. The archive data sets created by tar contain various file system parameters, such as name, timestamps, ownership, file-access permissions, and directory organization. POSIX abandoned tar in favor of pax, yet tar sees continued widespread use.

RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error correction and file spanning. It was developed in 1993 by Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal and the software is licensed by win.rar GmbH. The name RAR stands for Roshal Archive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7-Zip</span> Open-source file archiver

7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as "archives". It is developed by Igor Pavlov and was first released in 1999. 7-Zip has its own archive format called 7z, but can read and write several others.

pax is an archiving utility available for various operating systems and defined since 1995. Rather than sort out the incompatible options that have crept up between tar and cpio, along with their implementations across various versions of Unix, the IEEE designed new archive utility pax that could support various archive formats with useful options from both archivers. The pax command is available on Unix and Unix-like operating systems and on IBM i, and Microsoft Windows NT until Windows 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WinRAR</span> File archiver

WinRAR is a trialware file archiver utility for Windows, developed by Eugene Roshal of win.rar GmbH. It can create and view archives in RAR or ZIP file formats, and unpack numerous archive file formats. To enable the user to test the integrity of archives, WinRAR embeds CRC32 or BLAKE2 checksums for each file in each archive. WinRAR supports creating encrypted, multi-part and self-extracting archives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TUGZip</span>

TUGZip is a freeware file archiver for Microsoft Windows. It handles a great variety of archive formats, including some of the commonly used ones like zip, rar, gzip, bzip2, sqx and 7z. It can also view disk image files like BIN, C2D, IMG, ISO and NRG. TugZip repairs corrupted ZIP archives and can encrypt files with 6 different algorithms.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file archivers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. They are neither all-inclusive nor are some entries necessarily up to date. Unless otherwise specified in the footnotes section, comparisons are based on the stable versions—without add-ons, extensions or external programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ark (software)</span> Archiving tool for KDE desktop environment

Ark is a file archiver and compressor developed by KDE and included in the KDE Applications software bundle. It supports various common archive and compression formats including zip, 7z, rar, lha and tar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PowerArchiver</span>

PowerArchiver is a proprietary file archiver for Microsoft Windows and MacOS, developed by ConeXware Inc. It supports creating and reading ZIP, 7z, and Tar archive formats, as well as various disk image formats. Additionally, it can read RAR and ACE files. The evaluation version of the program remains functional for 40 days. Personal licenses are currently permitted free lifetime updates to all future versions of the software, while the business license is valid through two major versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNOME Archive Manager</span> Archive manager of the GNOME desktop environment (former File Roller)

Archive Manager is the file archiver of the GNOME desktop environment.

cpio is a general file archiver utility and its associated file format. It is primarily installed on Unix-like computer operating systems. The software utility was originally intended as a tape archiving program as part of the Programmer's Workbench (PWB/UNIX), and has been a component of virtually every Unix operating system released thereafter. Its name is derived from the phrase copy in and out, in close description of the program's use of standard input and standard output in its operation.

A kernel is a component of a computer operating system. A comparison of system kernels can provide insight into the design and architectural choices made by the developers of particular operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PeaZip</span> File archive computer program

PeaZip is a free and open-source file manager and file archiver for Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, Linux, MacOS and BSD by Giorgio Tani. It supports its native PEA archive format and other mainstream formats, with special focus on handling open formats. Version 9.4.0 supported 234 file extensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xarchiver</span>

Xarchiver is a front-end to various command line archiving tools for Linux and BSD operating systems, designed to be independent of the desktop environment. It is the default archiving application of Xfce and LXDE. Deepin's archive manager is based on Xarchiver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zipeg</span>

Zipeg is* an open source free software that extracts files from a wide range of compressed archive formats. Zipeg works under Mac OS X and Windows. It is best known for its file preview ability. It is incapable of compressing files, although it is able to extract compressed ones. Zipeg is built on top of the 7-Zip backend. Its UI is implemented in Java and is open source.

XZ Utils is a set of free software command-line lossless data compressors, including the programs lzma and xz, for Unix-like operating systems and, from version 5.0 onwards, Microsoft Windows. For compression/decompression the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) is used. XZ Utils started as a Unix port of Igor Pavlov's LZMA-SDK that has been adapted to fit seamlessly into Unix environments and their usual structure and behavior.

FreeArc is a free and open-source high-performance file archiver developed by Bulat Ziganshin. The project is presumably discontinued, since no information has been released by the developers since 2016 and the official website is down.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BetterZip</span>

BetterZip is a trialware file archiver developed by Robert Rezabek, and first released in May 2006.It is developed solely for the macOS platform. Unlike the built-in Archive Utility from Apple it includes the ability to extract and compress in many archive formats, as well as the ability to view an archive and selectively extract files without automatically extracting the entire contents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B1 Free Archiver</span> Multi-platform file archiver and file manager

B1 Free Archiver is a proprietary freeware multi-platform file archiver and file manager. B1 Archiver is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. It has full support for ZIP and its native B1 format. The program decompresses more than 20 popular archive formats. It creates split and encrypted archives.

References

  1. 1 2 "ReleaseNotes". GitHub. Archived from the original on 12 March 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  2. ↑ "Release 3.7.2". 11 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.