ZPAQ

ZPAQ (or zpaq) is a compressed archive format, and associated software.

Apparently, a capitalized ZPAQ usually refers to the format, while zpaq refers to the software.

ZPAQL
To the best of our understanding, ZPAQ decompression algorithms are written in a special programming language called ZPAQL (which apparently uses the .cfg file extension), compiled to bytecode, and stored in each ZPAQ archive. This allows ZPAQ to use practically any compression algorithm.

Identification
Most or all ZPAQ archives begin with ASCII "", or "".

Specifications

 * The ZPAQ Open Standard Format, Vesion 2.06
 * The ZPAQ Compression Algorithm

Sample files

 * ZPAQ website → test case (calgarytest2.zpaq)
 * ZPAQ Utilities → pi10k.zpaq

Links

 * ZPAQ website
 * Wikipedia article