PAK (ARC extension)

File Format
Name	PAK (ARC extension)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Archiving PAK (ARC extension)
Extension(s)	.pak
Released	1988

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 (#10 "crushed", and #11 "distilled"), and that it has some features made possible by "extended records" stored after the end-of-archive marker.

According to the documentation, the PAK software was originally (very briefly) named GSARC.

See ARC for more information relevant to PAK format.

Disambiguation

See PAK for more formats named PAK.

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

• PAK (software for DOS)
  • v1.6 (1989-01-24)
  • v2.10 (1989-08-10)
  • v2.50 (1990-09-20)
  • v2.51 (1990-10-08)
    • Another copy, packaged differently
• The Unarchiver - Supports the PAK-specific compression schemes

Sample files

• ARC2PAK1.PAK