7z

7z is a file format for archiving and data compression, developed by Igor Pavlov. It is the native format of the 7-Zip archiving application.

Format details
The 7z format defines many compression methods. The ones normally used are LZMA2 (default for 7-Zip 9.30 alpha +), LZMA (default for 7-Zip prior to 9.30 alpha), PPMd, and bzip2.

Identification
7z files begin with signature bytes.

Related formats

 * S7z
 * UFA (predecessor?)
 * 777 (predecessor?)
 * BIX (predecessor?)
 * ARG (same author)

Specifications

 * Refer to the DOC/7zFormat.txt and DOC/Methods.txt files in the source distribution.

Software

 * 7-Zip
 * 7zX for Mac
 * p7zip

Sample files

 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/archive/sevenZip/

Links

 * 7-Zip page about 7z Format
 * Wikipedia article