Archiving

File Formats

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Electronic File Formats

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Compression

(Lossless, for generic data + file archives)

Compression + archiving

(Multiple files => 1 file, makes it smaller)

• 7z - 7ZIP
• ACE ace
• ARC arc
• arc - ARC (FreeArc)
• arc, gz - ARC (Web Archiving)
• dmg - Apple Disk Image
• arj ARJ
• BRU - (RSX-11M backup)
• cab - Cabinet
• DWC dwc
• IMP imp
• Jar j, jar => this is just a renamed zip file with some mandatory files
• lzh, lha - LHAv
• PMA (.pma)
• RAR (.rar)
• Softlib (Softdisk Publishing)
• spk - Spark
• sit - Stuffit
• sitx - Stuffit X
• warc, warc.gz - WARC
• zip - ZIP
• zoo - ZOO

Archiving only

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

• arc - ARC (Internet Archive)
• hqx - BinHex
• LBR lbr
• tar - Tape Archive
• a lib - AR file format -- Unix Archiver (ar) format as used by various compilers/linkers
• CPIO cpio
• BagIt

Stream compression formats

A stream format takes a stream of bytes, and outputs a different, hopefully smaller, stream of bytes. These compression formats are often used internally in other data structures to compress data, as well as in network protocols, such as http. Used stand-alone, a stream compression format does not offer archiving capability, however in the UNIX doctrine, an archiver like tar can be combined with an archive format to produce a proper compressed archive.

• BZIP2 (.bz2)
• Crunch (.?Z?)
• GZIP (.gz)
• Error Code Modeler (.ecm)
• LZMA (.lzma)
• Squeeze/SQ (.?Q?)
• XZ (.xz)
• CrLZH (.?Y?)
• LZIP (.lz)
• LZOP (.lzop)
• LZW (.Z)
• DEFLATE rfc1951
• CCITT Group 4

Uncategorized

• 7zX (.s7z)
• 9CDR (Amiga FileImploder Clone)
• AFA (.afa)
• ALZip (.alz)
• APX (.apx)
• ARCFS (ArcFS ArchivePacker)
• ArchiveLib (GreenLeaf)
• BlakHole (.bh)
• Compact File Set (.cfs)
• Compact Pro (.cpt)
• CRN (.crn; compressed text files used for PC-Write manual)
• DGCA (.dgc)
• Disk Archiver (.dar)
• DiskDoubler (.dd)
• DMS (.dms; Amiga Disk Masher compressed file)
• DUPA (Amiga FileImploder Clone)
• DVDisaster Error Correction File (.ecc)
• FIMP (Amiga FileImploder)
• Freeze/Melt (.F)
• GCA (.gca)
• HA (.ha)
• Huffman Encoding (.z)
• ICE (.ice)
• IFHC (Amiga FileImploder Clone)
• IMP (Amiga FileImploder)
• Inflate (.infl)
• KGB Archiver (.kgb)
• KiriKiri (.xp3)
• LZX (.lzx)
• LNX (.lnx; Lynx archive, used on Commodore 64)
• Mozilla Archive (.mar)
• MS-DOS Compression (.??_)
• PackIt (.pit)
• PAK (.pak)
• PAQ (.paq6, .paq7, .paq8)
• Parchive File (.par, .par2)
• PartImage (.partimg)
• PeaZip (.pea)
• PerfectCompress (.uca)
• PIM (.pim)
• Quadruple D (.qda)
• RK (.rk)
• RZIP (.rzip)
• SCIFER (.ba)
• Scifer (.sen)
• Self Dissolving ARChive (.sda)
• Self-Extracting Archive (.sea)
• Self-Extracting Archive (.sfx)
• sfArk (.sfark)
• Shell Archive (.shar)
• SQX (.sqx)
• UHarc (.uha)
• UltraCompressor II (.uc, .uc0, .uc2, .ucn, .ur2, .ue2)
• Unix Archiver (.ar)
• Windows Image (.wim)
• WinHKI (.hki)
• WinRK (.rk)
• XAR (.xar)
• YZ1 (.yz1)
• Zzip (.zz)