Cabinet (file format)

Cabinet (file format)

Infobox file format
name = Cabinet
extension = .cab
mime = application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed
owner = Microsoft
creatorcode =
genre = Data compression
containerfor =
containedby =
extendedfrom =
extendedto = In computing, CAB is the Microsoft Windows native compressed archive format. It supports compression and digital signing, and is used in a variety of Microsoft installation engines: Setup API, Device Installer, AdvPack (for the installation of ActiveX components from Internet Explorer) and Windows Installer.

It was originally called Diamond.

The CAB file format allows for three data compression methods:
* DEFLATE, invented by Phil Katz, the author of the ZIP file format.
* Quantum, licensed from David Stafford, the author of the Quantum archiver.
* LZX, invented by Jonathan Forbes and Tomi Poutanen, given to Microsoft when Jonathan joined the company.

The CAB file extension is also used in many installers (InstallShield and others), although it is not the same file format. InstallShield's format cannot be manipulated or edited with most, or possibly any, of the tools that can edit the above file formats. However there are utilities, such as [http://www.synce.org/oldwiki/index.php/Unshield Unshield] , that can extract this specific proprietary format.

ee also

*List of archive formats

External links

* [http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974336 Microsoft Cabinet SDK]
* [http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/cabpack.htm CabPack] is a freeware compression program which can create cabinet files. (Last update: 11/28/2001)
* [http://www.cabextract.org.uk/ cabextract] is Free Software for unpacking cabinet files in UNIX
* [http://www.cabextract.org.uk/libmspack/ libmspack] is an LGPL licensed, portable library for creating and extracting CAB files and other Microsoft misc. formats (creation of CAB files not implemented yet)
* [http://coding.wooyayhoopla.be/lcab/ LCAB] - Linux cabinet file creator
* [http://www.synce.org/oldwiki/index.php/Unshield Unsheild] - InstallSheild CAB extraction utility


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