List of archive formats

From Free net encyclopedia

This is a list of file formats used by archivers and compressors.

Contents

[edit]

Archiving only

File extension(s)[1] MIME type[2] Official name[3] Platform[4] Description
.a, .ar Unix Archiver Unix-like The traditional archive format on Unix-like systems, now used mainly for the creation of static libraries.
.cpio application/x-cpio Cpio Unix-like
.shar application/x-shar Shell archive Unix-like A self-extracting archive that uses the Bourne shell (sh).
.tar application/x-tar Tape archive Unix-like A common archive format used on Unix-like systems. Generally used in common with gzip or compress to create .tar.gz or .tar.Z files.
[edit]

Compression only

File extension(s)[1] MIME type[2] Official name[3] Platform[4] Description
.bz2 application/x-bzip2 bzip2 Unix-like An open-source, patent- and royalty-free compression format.
.gz application/x-gzip gzip Unix-like GNU Zip, the primary compression format used by Unix-like systems.
.lzma lzma Unix-like The LZMA compression algorithm as used by 7-Zip
.lzo lzop Unix-like An implementation of the LZO data compression algorithm
.rz rzip Unix-like A compression program designed to do particularly well on very large files containing long distance redundancy.
.z application/x-compress pack Unix-like The old Huffman encoding compression format.
.Z application/x-compress compress Unix-like The traditional LZW compression format.
[edit]

Archiving and compression

File extension(s)[1] MIME type[2] Official name[3] Creation platform[4] Restoration platform[5] Restoring with free softwareTemplate:Ref 6 Description
.7z application/x-7z-compressed 7-Zip Windows, Unix-like Windows, Unix-like Yes Open-source file format. Used by 7-Zip.
.ace application/x-ace-compressed WinACE Windows Windows, GNU/Linux No (except for format prior to 2.0)
.arc ARC DOS Multiple Yes
.alz ALZ Windows Multiple Yes A format designed for very large archives.
.arj ARJ Multiple Multiple Yes
.cab application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed Cabinet Windows Multiple Yes The Microsoft Windows native archive format, which is also used by many commercial installers such as InstallShield, WISE, and InstallAware.
.cpt Compact Pro MacOS Compact Pro archive, a common archiver used on Mac platforms up until about MacOS 7.5.x. Competed with Stuffit; now obsolete.
.dar Disk Archiver Windows, Unix-like Windows, Unix-like Yes
.dgc application/x-dgc-compressed DGCA Windows Windows
.dmg application/octet-stream Disk Image Mac OS X Mac OS X Supports "Internet-enabled" disk images, which, once downloaded, are automatically decompressed, mounted, have the contents extracted, and thrown away. Currently Safari is the only browser that supports this form of extraction, however the images can be manually extracted as well. This format can also be password-protected or encrypted with AES-128.
.gca application/x-gca-compressed GCA The predecessor of DGCA.
.j Jar Multiple Multiple Yes Jar archive, the successor to ARJ
.jar application/x-java-archive Jar Multiple Multiple Yes Java Archive. This type is actually just a renamed ZIP archive with a mandatory manifest file.
.lzh, .lha application/x-lzh LHA Multiple Multiple No The standard format on Amiga.
.lzx application/x-lzx LZX Amiga Archiver originally used on Amiga. Now used in the Microsoft .cab files.
.partimg Partimage Multiple Multiple Yes A disk image archive format that supports several compression methods as well as splitting the archive into smaller pieces.
.pq6 PAQ6 Unix-like and Windows An experimental opensource packager (http://www.cs.fit.edu/~mmahoney/compression/#paq6)
.qda Quadruple D Windows Windows Used for data in games written using the Quadruple D library for Delphi. Uses byte pair compression.
.rar application/x-rar-compressed RAR Multiple Multiple Yes A proprietary archive format, second in popularity to .zip files.
.rk RK and WinRK [1] Multiple Multiple No The format from a commercial archiving package. Odd among commercial packages in that they focus on incorporating experimental algorithms with the highest possible compression (at the expense of speed and memory), such as PAQ, PPMD and PPMZ(PPMD with unlimited length strings), as well as a propriatary algorithms.
.sea sea Macintosh MacOS (implicitly) A pre-Mac OS X self-extracting shell archive format. Both Stuffit and Compact Pro had the capability to create .sea archives, though the Stuffit version tended to be more common.
.sit application/x-stuffit StuffIt Macintosh A compression format common on Apple Macintosh computers.
.sqx SQX Windows A royalty-free compressing format (SQX in German wikipedia)
.tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.Z, .tar.bz2, .tbz2 application/x-gtar tar with gzip, compress, or bzip2 Multiple Multiple Yes The "tarball" format combines tar archives with a file-based compression scheme (usually gzip). Commonly used for source and binary distribution on Unix-like platforms, widely available elsewhere.
.zip application/zip ZIP Originally DOS, now multiple Multiple Yes The most widely used compression format on Microsoft Windows. Commonly used on Macintosh and Unix systems too.
.zoo zoo Multiple Multiple Yes zoo
.zz Zzip Multiple Multiple Yes Archiver with a compression algorithm based on the Burrows-Wheeler Transform method.
[edit]

Packages

File extension(s)[1] MIME type[2] Official name[3] Platform[4] Description
.deb application/x-debian-package Debian package GNU/Linux (and other GNU derivatives) A software package format used on Debian and other Debian-based distributions.
.ipk Itsy Package GNU/Linux (and other GNU derivatives) A minimalistic derivative of the Debian package format used in handheld distributions and championed by Handhelds.org
.msi Windows Installer Windows The now-standard software package format on Microsoft Windows.
.pkg, .mpkg, .dist Package, Metapackage, Distribution Mac OS X A NeXTSTEP-derived package format that is used by the Installer application.
.rpm application/x-rpm RPM Package Manager, formerly Red Hat Package Manager GNU/Linux A software package format that was created by Red Hat. It is now used on many other distributions.
.pbi PC BSD Installer [?] PC-BSD Package format used on PC-BSD. It contains all necessary libraries (to avoid dependency hell).
[edit]

Footnotes

[1] (File extensions)—The file extensions may differ across platforms. The case of these extensions may differ on case-insensitve platforms.
[2] (MIME type)—The MIME media types may be conjectural. Very few have been officially registered with the IANA. Compression-only formats should often be denoted by the media type of the uncompressed data, with a content coding indicating the compression format.
[3] (Official name)—The official names may be disputed.
[4] (Creation platform)—Indicates the platform(s) under which a format can be created.
[5] (Restoration platform)—Indicates the platform(s) under which a format can be restored/extracted. Most file formats can be understood by more than one platform.
Template:Ref 6 (Restoring with free software)—Indicates whether the format can be restored using an extraction tool that is free software.

[edit]

Platforms

[edit]

See also

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/List_of_archive_formats"