Archiving

(Lossless, for generic data + file archives)

See also: Compression, Error detection and correction

Archiving only
(many files => 1 file, no compression attempted)


 * AR file format (.a, .lib) -- Unix Archiver (ar) format as used by various compilers/linkers
 * ARC (Internet Archive) (.arc)
 * BagIt
 * BAR (Age of Mythology)
 * bar (SunOS 4)
 * cpio (.cpio)
 * LBR (.lbr)
 * LBR (Commodore) (.lbr)
 * Lynx archive (Commodore) (.lnx)
 * Mozilla Archive (.mar)
 * pax
 * Tape Archive (.tar)
 * VIV (.viv, .big; used in Electronic Arts games)
 * Webarchive (Safari)

Compression + archiving
(Multiple files => 1 file, makes it smaller. See Compression for formats that compress single files/streams, and Disk Image Formats for formats that capture the low-level structure of a disk)


 * 4Q (.4q)
 * 7z (.7z)
 * ACE (.ace)
 * afio
 * ALZ (.alz) (ALZip)
 * ARC (PC/MS-DOS) (.arc)
 * ARC (Commodore) (.arc)
 * ARC (FreeArc) (.arc)
 * ARC (Internet Archive) (gzipped form: .arc.gz)
 * ArcFS (RISC OS) (.arc)
 * ARJ
 * Astrotite (.afa)
 * BlakHole (.bh)
 * BRU - (RSX-11M backup)
 * Cabinet (.cab)
 * Compact File Set (.cfs)
 * Compact Pro (.cpt)
 * Disk Archiver (.dar)
 * DGCA (.dgc)
 * DWC (.dwc)
 * EGG (ALZip) (.egg)
 * GCA (.gca)
 * Greenleaf ArchiveLib
 * HA (.ha)
 * HKI (WinHKI) (.hki)
 * ICE (.ice)
 * IMP (.imp)
 * JAR (ARJ Software) (.j)
 * KGB Archiver (.kgb)
 * LHA (.lzh, .lha)
 * LZX (.lzx)
 * MAFF (Mozilla web archive; uses ZIP for compression)
 * NuFX (.bxy)
 * Packdir (RISC OS)
 * PackIt (.pit)
 * PAK (.pak)
 * PAQ (.pa6, .pa7, .pa8, others)
 * PEA (PeaZIP) (.pea)
 * PerfectCompress (.uca)
 * PIM (.pim)
 * PMA (.pma)
 * Quadruple D Archiver (.qda)
 * Quantum compressed archive (.q)
 * RAR (.rar)
 * RK (WinRK)
 * S7z (.s7z)
 * Scifer (.sen, .ba, .xml)
 * ShrinkIt (.shk)
 * Softlib (Softdisk Publishing) (.slb)
 * Spark (.spk)
 * SQX (.sqx)
 * StuffIt (.sit)
 * StuffIt X (.sitx)
 * UHARC (.uha)
 * UltraCompressor II (.uc, .uc0, .uc2, .ucn, .ur2, .ue2)
 * WARC (.warc, .warc.gz)
 * xar (.xar)
 * XP3 (.xp3) - used in KiriKiri Adventure Game System
 * Yamazaki zipper archive (.yz1) - used in DeepFreezer
 * ZIP (.zip)
 * Zipx (.zipx)
 * ZOO (.zoo)
 * Zzip (.zz)

Diff files
(containing only the parts of a file that have changed, so they can be applied to an existing file to update it; used for update distribution and incremental backups)
 * binpatch (Jaap Korthals Altes)
 * bsdiff
 * Courgette
 * diff
 * FidoNet nodediff
 * GDIFF
 * IPS (binary patch format)
 * RTPatch
 * Unified diff

Filesystem backup
Formats designed for backing up disks, usually specifically targeted at particular filesystems (but backing it up in the form of file structures, not raw sector images like Disk Image Formats).
 * BACKUP (MS-DOS)
 * Partimage
 * ufsdump
 * Windows Imaging Format (.wim, .swm)

Institutional archiving

 * ARK (identifier for archived documents)
 * OAIS (Open Archival Information System, an organization that does archiving)
 * Planets Core Registry
 * PRONOM
 * PUID
 * SIRF (Self-Contained Information Retention Format)
 * Submission Information Package
 * UPF (Universal Preservation Format)

Metadata formats

 * Archive Team hostname file
 * DFDL (Data Format Description Language) - a file format for describing file formats
 * Internet Archive metadata
 * mtree
 * TOSEC Naming Convention
 * Web Archive Metadata File (metadata for WARC)

(see also Metadata, Bibliographic data)

Miscellaneous

 * 7-Zip
 * Cache Directory Tagging Standard

Program/App/Applet/Installer specialized archive formats

 * APK (Android app)
 * Bento (1990s Apple cross-platform compound content format)
 * Bundle file (Linux)
 * Bundle file (OS X)
 * deb (Debian package)
 * GEOS Convert (.cvt)
 * Image Packaging System (IPS) archive (.p5p)
 * Image Packaging System (IPS) manifest (.p5m)
 * Inno Setup self-extracting archive
 * InstallShield CAB
 * InstallShield Z
 * IPA (.ipa) => iOS app in archived form; actually in zip format
 * Jar (.j, .jar) (Java) => this is just a renamed zip file with some mandatory files
 * Meta-Package File (.mpkg) (Mac OS X)
 * NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System)
 * Olive (executable virtual-machine archive of software)
 * Package File (OS X) (.pkg)
 * RPM (RedHat Package Manager)
 * SIS (Symbian)
 * TI variable file
 * Windows Installer (.msi, .msp)

Self-extracting archives
(in addition, some of the other archivers are able to produce executable files for some platform which include the archived data and a program to extract them, and generally have the file extension normal for executables, such as .exe for DOS/Windows. In many cases, if you rename the extension to the appropriate one for the archive type involved, e.g., .zip, the file will open in the appropriate archiver, which is handy for extracting them on systems not compatible with the original executable.)
 * SDA (Self Dissolving Archive)
 * SEA (Self-Extracting Archive]
 * Self-extracting ZIP
 * SFX (Self-Extracting Archive)
 * shar (Shell Archive, in Unix-like systems)

Transfer encodings
(convert binaries to printable ASCII for download; encode resource forks or metadata together with file, etc.)
 * Ascii85
 * Binary II (.bny) (for Apple II series) (often squeezed as .bqy)
 * BinHex (.hqx)
 * MacBinary

See also the main article, Transfer Encodings.

Links

 * Torture-testing Backup and Archive Programs: Things You Ought to Know But Probably Would Rather Not
 * Discussion of proposed top-level MIME type for 'archive'