PAK (ARC extension)

PAK is a DOS utility for managing compressed archive files, developed by NoGate Consulting. It is also the name of one of the file formats it supports: .PAK format.

PAK format is an extension of ARC format. The differences are that it may use some PAK-specific compression methods (see below), and that it has some features made possible by "extended records" stored after the end-of-archive marker.

PAK was originally named GSARC (and used filename extension .ARC), but was quickly renamed to PAK (and the default extension changed to .PAK).

See ARC for more information relevant to PAK format. See also SDN (SDN Project).

Disambiguation
See PAK for more formats named PAK.

Compression methods
ARC compression methods unique to PAK:

For other ARC compression methods, see ARC (compression format).

Self-extracting archives
All versions of PAK and GSARC can create self-extracting EXE archives, either with the  option, or the included EXEMAKE.EXE utility. The original distribution files (e.g. PAK251.EXE) use this format.

Such archives contain an embedded PAK file, with apparently one special case: PAK v1.6 (and only that version) when the file includes remarks (comments). In that case, the remarks are interleaved with the member files in a way that is not normal for PAK format.

Identification
PAK format files made by PAK/GSARC v1.0 typically start with bytes, and end with.

Files made by PAK v1.5–1.6 typically start with, and end with.

Files made by PAK v2.0+ typically start with, and end with.

A file that ends with  could also be identifiable as PAK format if the first byte is   and the second is ,  , or. That could happen if the first member file was not compressible, or was compressed with non-default options.

Specifications
The PAK.DOC file contained in the v2.51 distribution includes basic information about .PAK/.ARC format, including the extended records. It does not document the compression schemes in detail.

Software

 * (1988-10-13) (DOS binary)
 * PAK (DOS binaries)
 * (1988-10-17)
 * (1989-01-24)
 * (1989-08-10)
 * (1990-09-20)
 * (1990-10-08)
 * , packaged differently
 * The Unarchiver - Supports the PAK-specific compression schemes

Sample files

 * [ asa57.zip] → ASA57U.EXE - Example of a self-extracting PAK archive
 * [ asa57.zip] → ASA57U.EXE - Example of a self-extracting PAK archive