Comparison of file archivers

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This article compares several notable file archiver utilities. Unless otherwise noted, comparisons are for full release versions (not prerelease) and for installations without extra aspects such as add-ons, extensions or external programs.

General information

Legend:
  Free/no cost   Paid   Cost depends
  Open source (licenses)   Proprietary

More information File archivers, Developer ...
File archivers Developer Initial release Platform Latest release version Latest release date Status License Cost (USD)
7-Zip Igor Pavlov 1999-01-02 Cross-platform 26.00[1] Edit this on Wikidata 2026-02-12 Active LGPL-2.1-or-later
(RAR plugin is proprietary)		 No cost
ALZip ESTsoft 1999[a] Cross-platform 12.22[2] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-02-07 Active Proprietary No cost[b]
Archive Manager
(File Roller)		 Paolo Bacchilega 2001-05-12 Cross-platform 44.3[3] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-05-19 Active GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Archive Utility Apple 2003-10-24 macOS Active Proprietary Bundled[c]
Ark KDE team 1997 Cross-platform R14.1.2[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-04-18 Active GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
B1 Free Archiver Adam Buyer 2011-08 Cross-platform (Android), (Linux), (macOS), (Windows) (Android), (Linux), (macOS), (Windows) Inactive Proprietary No cost
BetterZip MacItBetter 2006-05 macOS 5.3.4[5] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-04-11 Active Proprietary $29.95 USD
Commander One Eltima Software 2015-08-04 macOS Active Proprietary Standard at no cost.
$29.95 Pro Pack.
Compressed Folders Microsoft 1998-06-25 Windows Windows 8.1 2013-08-27 Active Proprietary Bundled[d]
Disk ARchiver Denis Corbin 2002 Cross-platform 2.8.4[6] Edit this on Wikidata 2026-03-18 Active GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
Expander Haiku 2002 Haiku R1/beta5[7] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-13 Active MIT No cost
Filzip Philipp Engel Unknown Windows 3.06[8] Edit this on Wikidata 2006-07-19 Inactive Proprietary No cost
FreeArc Bulat Ziganshin 2007-11-01[e] Cross-platform 0.666[9] Edit this on Wikidata 2010-05-20 Inactive GPL-2.0-only No cost
iArchiver Dare to be Creative Ltd. 2007-10-21 macOS 1.4.1 2008-10-30 Inactive Proprietary $26
Info-ZIP
(Wzip)		 Samuel Smith 1989-03 Cross-platform 6.0 2009-04-29 Inactive Info-Zip[10] No cost
KGB Archiver Tomasz Pawlak 2006-04-01 Cross-platform Inactive GPL-2.0-only No cost
PeaZip Giorgio Tani 2006-04-19 Cross-platform 11.0.0[11] Edit this on Wikidata 2026-04-26 Active LGPL-3.0-or-later No cost
PKZIP Phil Katz 1989 Cross-platform 12.4[12] 2009-09 Active Proprietary $29.00
PowerArchiver ConexWare 1999-03 macOS 2.00.01[13] Edit this on Wikidata (macOS), 22.10.02[14] Edit this on Wikidata (Windows) 2021-11-18 (macOS), 2025-12-03 (Windows) Active Proprietary $22.95
StuffIt Smith Micro Software 1987 Cross-platform 15.0.7[15] 2011-12-01 Inactive Proprietary $49.99 Deluxe.[16]
$79.99 French Deluxe.[17]
Windows: $14.99 Standard.[18]
$29.99 Deluxe.[19]
$49.99 French (or German) Deluxe.[20][21]
No cost for expander.
TAR AT&T 1979, 1987 (pdtar), 1997 (star) Cross-platform 3.5.2 (BSD tar), 1.35[22] Edit this on Wikidata (GNU tar), 1.6.0 (star) 2021-08-23 (BSD tar), 2023-07-18 (GNU tar), 2019-04-15 (star) Active BSD-2-Clause (BSD tar), GPL-3.0-or-later (GNU tar), public domain (pdtar), CDDL-1.0 (star) No cost
The Unarchiver Circlesoft 2006-07-01 Cross-platform 4.3.8[23] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-05-16 Active Proprietary No cost
Terse IBM 1984-07-01 Active Proprietary No cost
TUGZip Christian Kindahl 2002-08-18 Windows 3.5.0.0[24] Edit this on Wikidata 2008-04-02 Inactive Proprietary No cost
WinAce e-merge GmbH Unknown Windows 2.69i[25] Edit this on Wikidata 2008-02-26 Inactive Proprietary $29.00 Standard.
$39.00 Plus.
No cost for expander.[f]
WinRAR Eugene Roshal
Alexander Roshal		 1993 Cross-platform 7.20[26] Edit this on Wikidata 2026-02-04 Active Proprietary $29.[27]
No cost for expander.
WinZip WinZip Computing, Inc 1991 Cross-platform 6.9.0[28] Edit this on Wikidata (Android), 7.11[29] Edit this on Wikidata (iOS), 10.0.6204[30] Edit this on Wikidata (macOS), 27.0.15240[31][32] Edit this on Wikidata (Windows) 2023-06-12 (Android), 2023-06-26 (iOS), 2023-03-21 (macOS), 2022-08-23 (Windows) Active Proprietary $29.95 Standard.
$49.95 Pro.
XAD
(XADMaster.library)		 Dirk Stoecker 1998 Cross-platform 13.1 Inactive Proprietary Shareware
No cost for non-commercial use.
Xarchiver Giuseppe Torelli Unknown Cross-platform 0.5.4.26[33] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-09-01 Active GPL-2.0-or-later No cost
ZipGenius Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software 2003-05 Windows Active Proprietary No cost
ZPAQ Matt Mahoney 2009-03 Cross-platform 7.15[34] Edit this on Wikidata 2016-09-22 Active Public domain
MIT[35]		 No cost
File archivers Developer Initial release Platform Latest release version Latest release date Status License Cost (USD)
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Notes:

  1. [a]
    As a WinZip translation.
  2. [b]
    A general serial number was published on developer's website altools.com in August 2012.
  3. [c]
    Included with macOS Core Services.
  4. [d]
    Included in Microsoft Windows Windows Explorer shell since Windows Me.
  5. [e]
    v0.36
  6. [f]
    Linux & macOS only.

Operating system support

The following table identifies the operating systems that archivers can run on directly – without emulation or a compatibility layer.

More information File archivers, Windows ...
File archivers Windows DOS macOS Linux BSD Other Unix AmigaOS
 Android
 Windows Mobile Windows Phone
7-Zip Yes[a] Command-line interface[b] Yes[b] Command-line interface[b] Command-line interface[b] Command-line interface[b] Command-line interface No Yes No
ALZip Yes Command-line interface[36] No No No No No No No No
ALZip for Mac No No Yes No No No No No No No
Archive Manager No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Archive Utility No No Yes No No No No No No No
Ark No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
B1 Free Archiver Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
BetterZip No No Yes No No No No No No No
bsdtar/libarchive Yes, bundled[c] No Yes, bundled Yes Yes, bundled Yes Partial Unknown Unknown No
Commander One No No Yes No No No No No No No
Disk ARchiver Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Filzip Yes No No No No No No No No No
FreeArc Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
GNU tar Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
iArchiver No No Yes No No No No Unknown Unknown ?
Info-ZIP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[d] Yes No Yes[e] No
KGB Archiver Yes[f] Partial Command-line interface Yes No No No Yes Unknown ?
PeaZip Yes[a] No Yes[37] Yes Yes No No Unknown Unknown ?
PKZIP Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Unknown Unknown ?
PowerArchiver Yes Unknown Yes No No No No Unknown Unknown ?
Star Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown ?
StuffIt Yes Unknown Yes X86 only, older version (5.2.0?) No older version (5.2.0?) No Unknown Unknown ?
The Unarchiver Command-line interface No Yes Command-line interface No No No Unknown No ?
TUGZip Yes Unknown No No No No No Unknown Unknown ?
WinAce Yes Command-line interface[g] Command-line interface expander only[g] X86, Command-line interface expander only[g] No No Command-line interface expander only Unknown Unknown ?
WinRAR and RAR Yes[a] Yes Command-line interface[h] X86 and x86-64, Command-line interface[h] Command-line interface[h] Command-line interface[h] Command-line interface expander only Yes[38] Yes ?
WinZip Yes[a] Command-line interface Yes No No No Yes Yes Unknown ?
XAD No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Unknown ?
Xarchiver No No No Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown ?
ZipGenius Yes Unknown No No No No No Unknown Unknown ?
ZPAQ Yes Unknown Yes Yes No No No Unknown Unknown ?
Windows DOS macOS Linux BSD Unix AmigaOS Android Windows Mobile Windows Phone
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Notes:

  1. [a]
    A separate 64-bit Windows x64 Edition version is also available.
  2. [b]
    The Unix-like system port is known as p7zip. p7zip also is provided by FreeDOS.
  3. [c]
    Bundled with Windows 10 since insider build 17063
  4. [d]
    Also Acorn RISC OS, Atari, MVS, OS/2, VM/CMS, VMS and others.
  5. [e]
    General Windows CE version.
  6. [f]
    This program also has a POSIX version available.
  7. [g]
    The programs for other platforms are called Unace, do not have the same GUI, and can only perform decompression.
  8. [h]
    WinRAR is for Windows, RAR for other platforms.

Archiver features

The following table indicates which archivers implement various archiver features natively – without third-party add-ons.

More information File archivers, Data compression ...
File archivers Data compression Shell
integration		 Password protection Multiple volumes Self extraction File repairing Batch conversion Unicode file /
directory names[a]		 Encryption Filename Encryption
7-Zip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
ALZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[b] No Unknown Unknown
Archive Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Archive Utility Yes Yes No Unknown No No Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
ARJ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Ark Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
B1 Free Archiver Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BetterZip Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
bsdtar/libarchive non-tar formats[c] Yes zip Yes No No Yes Yes 7z, zip, rar 7z, zip, rar
Commander One Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Unknown Yes for 7z
Disk ARchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Filzip Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes No No Unknown Unknown Unknown
FreeArc Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNU tar No[c] Yes No Yes No Separate Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
iArchiver Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Unknown Unknown
Info-ZIP Yes No[d] Yes Yes[e] Yes Yes Yes Yes[e] ZipCrypto (weak) and AES[e] No
KGB Archiver Yes Not enabled by default Yes Unknown Yes No No Yes Yes Unknown
PeaZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[f] Yes[g] Yes
PKZIP Yes Yes Yes No Separate Separate No Yes Yes Unknown
PowerArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[h] Yes Yes Yes
StuffIt Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown
The Unarchiver No[i] some formats Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[i] Yes Unknown
TUGZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Unknown
WinAce Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Unknown
WinRAR and RAR Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[j] Yes Yes[k] Yes Yes
WinZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[g] Yes Yes Yes
XAD No[i] Yes Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Xarchiver Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
ZipGenius Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Yes No Unknown Unknown
ZPAQ Yes Unknown Yes Yes No Unknown Unknown Yes Yes Unknown
Data compression Shell
integration		 Password protection Multiple volumes Self extraction File repairing Batch conversion Unicode file /
directory names[a]		 Encryption Filename Encryption
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Notes:

  1. [a]
    Extracting/adding file and/or directory names into archive in either UTF-7, UTF-8 or UTF-16/UCS-2 encoding to support single file/directory name which contains characters from different languages. More recent versions of the zip file format have support for Unicode filenames.
  2. [b]
    Commandline batch compression is available only for ZIP and ALZ formats.
  3. [c]
    Traditionally, tar, cpio, or pax calls the external programs gzip and bzip2 to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain the archiver. This is the case for GNU tar. BSD tar uses its own implementation, since it also has to deal with archive formats that do their own compression.
  4. [d]
    Many shells have built-in zip file support. Windows Explorer has "Send To"->"ZIP-compressed folder".
  5. [e]
    Unicode and volumes since version 3.0 (2008). AES since 3.1 (in beta).
  6. [f]
    UTF-8 file/path-names support was completed in release 3.0.1 on Unix systems, and in release 5.8.0 on Windows systems. GUI UTF-8 support for full internationalization of the application was completed in release 2.2.0. Optionally, extended characters can be set to be replaced by jolly "?" character for exporting scripts to legacy systems; scripts creation screen informs if commands are ANSI-safe, OEM-codepage-safe (on Windows), or requires UTF-8 compliant environment to run (system, command interpreter, etc).[39]
  7. [g]
    Command-line batch compression and expansion requires free add-on software downloaded from the WinZip website.
  8. [h]
    Does support Unicode names, but not under the default (initial) option settings: the user must tick "Use OEM conversion for filenames" under "General" on the "Miscellaneous" tab in the Configuration dialog to enable Unicode name support. Full support for Unicode files names by default is supported only for 7-Zip and RAR archive formats.
  9. [i]
    Application is only for decompression.
  10. [j]
    Allows for a variable amount of error correction. See also RAR (file format).
  11. [k]
    In WinRAR 3.60, when opening 7-Zip archives which contains Unicode file/directory names, they will not be displayed correctly. There will be no problem extracting them, however.

Archive format support

Reading

The following table identifies the archive formats that each archiver can read. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are compression formats rather than archive formats.

More information File archivers, ZIP ...
File archivers ZIP
 TAR
 GZ
 BZ/BZ2
 7z
 XZ
 RAR
 LHA/LZH
 ACE
 SIT
 SITX
 ARJ
 KGB
 DAR
 ARC
 CAB
 ALZ
 ISO/CD Image
 ZPAQ
7-Zip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[a] No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No
ALZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
TAR No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Archive Utility Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No[b] No
Ark Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
B1 Free Archiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No[c] No No No Yes Yes Yes No
BetterZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No
bsdtar/libarchive Yes Yes Yes[d] Yes[d] Yes Yes[d] Partial[e] Yes No No No No No No No Yes No Yes No
cpio No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Commander One Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Disk ARchiver No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Filzip Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No
FreeArc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes No[a] No No Yes No No No[f] Yes No Yes No
GNU tar[2] No[h] Yes Yes[h] Yes[h] No[a] Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No
iArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No No
Info-ZIP Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
KGB Archiver Yes No No No No Unknown No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No
PeaZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
PKZIP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
PowerArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Star[h] No[h] Yes Yes[h] Yes[h] Yes[h] Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No
StuffIt Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
The Unarchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Partial[i] Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
TUGZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No
WinAce Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No No Yes No
WinRAR Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No
WinZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes[j] Yes No No No Yes[k] No No Yes[k] Yes No Yes No
XAD Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown Yes Yes Partial Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Xarchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No
ZipGenius Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Yes[l] Yes No No Yes[l] No No Yes Yes No Yes No
ZIP TAR GZ BZ/BZ2 7z XZ RAR LHA/LZH ACE SIT SITX ARJ KGB DAR ARC CAB ALZ ISO/CD Image ZPAQ
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Notes:

  1. [a]
    Used to, but no longer does, due to technical and legal issues.
  2. [b]
    Archive Utility itself is unable to open ISO files, but Disk Utility, which also comes with macOS, is able to mount them as virtual disks.
  3. [c]
    B1 Free Archiver for Android and B1 Online Archiver support ARJ format.
  4. [d]
    Supports these formats as compression stream of other archive formats like tar.bz2 or iso.xz but does not support the format as an archive itself, as they are not archive formats. See the above explanation for tar.
  5. [e]
    libarchive has issues reading RAR formats, some partial reads are unsupported hence broken for generic usage.[40]
  6. [f]
    FreeARC uses .arc as its filename extension, but this format is not the same as the traditional ARC file.
  7. [g]
    GNU tar lets you implement your own filters,[41] allowing you to use other compression programs (p7zip, ...) and filters (GPG, ...).
  8. [h]
    Tar implementations call external programs (like compress, gzip or bzip2 or any other programs working with abstract streams and supporting the "-d" option) to perform (de)compression, and allowing you to implement your own filters.[g] These external programs may be shipped with your operating system.
  9. [i]
    Only partial support for reading proprietary SITX format.[42]
  10. [j]
    Starting from version 11.
  11. [k]
    Requires external program.[43]
  12. [l]
    Requires external program.[44]

Writing

The following table identifies the archive formats that each archiver[a] can write and create. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are compression formats rather than archive formats.

More information File archivers, ZIP ...
File archivers ZIP
 TAR
 GZ
 BZ2
 7z
 XZ
 RAR
 LHA/LZH
 ACE
 SIT
 SITX
 ARJ
 KGB
 DAR
 ARC
 CAB
 ALZ
 ISO/CD Image
 ZPAQ
 Special
7-Zip Yes Yes Yes[b] Yes[b] Yes Yes[b] No No No No No No No No No No No No No
ALZip[c] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Unknown No
Archive Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[d] Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No No
Archive Utility Yes No No No No Unknown No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Ark Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[e] Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
B1 Free Archiver Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
BetterZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
bsdtar/libarchive Yes Yes Yes[f] Yes[f] Yes Yes[f] No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No
Commander One Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Disk ARchiver No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Filzip Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No Yes No No No No No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No
FreeArc Yes No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No
GNU tar No Yes Yes[g] Yes[g] No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No
iArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Info-ZIP Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
KGB Archiver Yes No No No No Unknown No No No No No No Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No
PeaZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No No Yes
PKZIP Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No No No No No No No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No
PowerArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[h] Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No Yes .bh (BlakHole) by ZipTV
Star No Yes Yes[g] Yes[g] Yes[g] Yes[g] No No No No No No No No No No No No No
StuffIt Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No[i] Yes No[i] Yes Yes No No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No
TUGZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No[j] Yes No[k] No No No No No No Yes No Unknown No
WinAce Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No Yes Yes No No No No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Yes No
WinRAR Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
WinZip Yes No No No No No No No No No No No[l] No No No No No No No ZIPx
Xarchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[m] Yes No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No
ZipGenius Yes Yes[n] Yes[n] Yes[n] Yes Unknown No Yes[o] No No No No No No Unknown Yes[n] No No No
ZIP TAR GZ BZ2 7z XZ RAR LHA/LZH ACE SIT SITX ARJ KGB DAR ARC CAB ALZ ISO/CD Image ZPAQ Special
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Notes:

  1. [a]
    The Extractor and XAD are not included in this list because they only expand archives.
  2. [b]
    If there are more than one, files must be grouped in a .tar before being compressed.
  3. [c]
    ALZip can also write to the following formats: BH, JAR, and LZH
  4. [d]
    Archive Manager (previously known as "File Roller") is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Archive Manager. writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.[45]
  5. [e]
    Ark is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Ark; writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.[46]
  6. [f]
    supports the formats as stream compression of other archive format and can create compressed format like tar.bz2 or iso.xz but cannot create an archive in these formats
  7. [g]
    Tar implementations call the external programs gzip and bzip2, 7z, xz, ... to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain tar.
  8. [h]
    it require console rar.exe, and the path to it -- specified in Options . it can be taken from WinRAR software . PowerArchiever also doesn't support separate definition of the Dictionary Size and Compression Method .
  9. [i]
    Stuffit supported file formats[47]
  10. [j]
    Requires rar.exe from WinRAR.
  11. [k]
    Requires Ace32.exe from WinAce.
  12. [l]
    Requires external program(if you are using WinZip 11.1 or earlier).[48]
  13. [m]
    Xarchiver is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Xarchiver; writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.[49][50]
  14. [n]
    Updating archives is not supported.[44]
  15. [o]
    Requires external program.[44]

Uncommon archive format support

PeaZip has full support for Brotli, Zstandard, various LPAQ and PAQ formats, QUAD / BALZ / BCM (highly efficient ROLZ based compressors), FreeArc format, and for its native PEA format.

7-Zip includes read support for .msi, cpio and xar, plus Apple's dmg/HFS disk images and the deb/.rpm package distribution formats; beta versions (9.07 onwards) have full support for the LZMA2-compressed .xz format.[51]

See also

References

Further reading

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