List of archive formats

This is a list of file formats used by archivers and compressors used to create archive files.

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	RPM files consist of metadata concatenated with (usually) a cpio archive. Newer RPM systems also support other archives, as cpio is becoming obsolete. cpio is also used with initramfs.
.shar	application/x-shar	Shell archive	Unix-like	A self-extracting archive that uses the Bourne shell (sh).
.LBR		.LBR	CP/M DOS	A system for storing multiple files. LBR archives typically contained files processed by SQ, or the archive itself was compressed with SQ. LBR archives that were compressed with SQ ended with the extension .LQR
.iso		ISO-9660 image	(Various; cross platform)	An archive format originally used mainly for archiving and distribution of the exact, nearly-exact, or custom-modified contents of an optical storage medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. However, it can be used to archive the contents of other storage media, selected partitions, folders, and/or files. The resulting archive is typically optimized for convenient rendering to (re-)writable CD or DVD media.
.lbr			Commodore 64/128	A library format used primarily on the Commodore 64 and 128 lines of computers. This bears no resemblance to the DOS LBR format. While library files were quick to implement (a number of programs exist to work with them) they are crippled in that they cannot grow with use: once a file has been created it cannot be amended (files added, changed or deleted) without recreating the entire file.
.mar		Mozilla Archive	(Various; cross platform)	An archive format used by Mozilla for storing binary diffs. Used in conjunction with bzip2.
.tar	application/x-tar	Tape archive	Unix-like	A common archive format used on Unix-like systems. Generally used in conjunction with compressors such as gzip, bzip2, compress or xz to create .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.Z or tar.xz files.

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. The compression algorithm is a Burrows-Wheeler transform followed by a move-to-front transform and finally Huffman coding
.F		Freeze/melt [1]	QNX4	Old compressor for QNX4 OS. The compression algorithm is a modified LZSS, with an adaptive Huffman coding.
.gz	application/x-gzip	gzip	Unix-like	GNU Zip, the primary compression format used by Unix-like systems. The compression algorithm is DEFLATE.
.lz	application/x-lzip	lzip	Unix-like	An alternate LZMA algorithm implementation, with support for checksums and ident bytes.
.lzma	application/x-lzma	lzma	Unix-like	The LZMA compression algorithm as used by 7-Zip
.lzo	application/x-lzop	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.
.sfark		sfArk	Windows compress/decompress- Linux and Mac OS X decompress only	A compression program designed to do high compression on SF2 files (SoundFont)
.?Q?		SQ	CP/M and DOS	Squeeze: A program which compressed files. A file which was "squeezed" had the middle initial of the name changed to "Q", so that a squeezed text file would end with .TQT, a squeezed executable would end with .CQM or .EQE. Typically used with .LBR archives, either by storing the squeezed files in the archive, or by storing the files uncompressed and then compressing the archive, which would have a name ending in ".LQR".
.?Z?		CRUNCH	CP/M and DOS	A compression program written by Steven Greenberg implementing the LZW algorithm. For several years in the CP/M world when no implementation was available of ARC, CRUNCHed files stored in .LBR archives were very popular. CRUNCH's implementation of LZW had a somewhat unique feature of modifying and occasionally clearing the code table in memory when it became full, resulting in a few percent better compression on many files.
.xz	application/x-xz	xz	Unix-like	A compression format using LZMA2 to yield very high compression ratios.
.z	application/x-compress	pack	Unix-like	The old Huffman coding compression format.
.Z	application/x-compress	compress	Unix-like	The traditional LZW compression format.
.infl		inflate	Unix-like	Joke compression program, actually increasing file size
.??_			MS-DOS/Windows	Compression format(s) used by some DOS and Windows install programs. MS-DOS includes expand.exe to uncompress its install files. The compressed files are created with a matching compress.exe command. The compression algorithm is LZSS.

Archiving and compression

File extension(s)[1]	MIME type[2]	Official name[3]	Creation platform[4]	Restoration platform[5]	Restoring with free software[6]	Description
.7z	application/x-7z-compressed	7z	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Open source file format. Used by 7-Zip.
.s7z	application/x-7z-compressed	7zX	Mac OS X	Mac OS X, restoration on different platforms is possible although not immediate	Yes	Based on 7z. Preserves Spotlight metadata, resource forks, owner/group information, dates and other data which would be otherwise lost with compression. Made obsolete by the introduction of AppleDouble-encoded 7z archives (Macintosh only).
.ace	application/x-ace-compressed	ACE	Windows	Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X	Old archive versions only	Proprietary format
.afa	application/x-astrotite-afa	AFA	Windows, GNU/Linux,	Windows, GNU/Linux,	No	A format that compresses and doubly encrypt the data (AES256 and CAS256) avoiding brute force attacks, also hide files in an AFA file. It has two ways to safeguard data integrity and subsequent repair of the file if has an error (repair with AstroA2P (online) or Astrotite (offline)).
.alz	application/x-alz-compressed	ALZip	Windows	Multiple	Yes	A mainly Korean format designed for very large archives.
.apk	application/vnd.android.package-archive	APK	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Android application package (variant of JAR file format).
.arc		ARC	Multiple	Multiple	Yes
.arj	application/x-arj	ARJ	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Yes
.ba		Scifer	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Binary Archive with external header
.bh		BlackHole			No	Proprietary format from the ZipTV Compression Components
.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 and WISE.
.cfs	application/x-cfs-compressed	Compact File Set	Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X	Multiple	Yes	Open source file format.
.cpt		Compact Pro	Mac OS			Compact Pro archive, a common archiver used on Mac platforms until about Mac OS 7.5.x. Competed with StuffIt; now obsolete.
.dar	application/x-dar	Disk Archiver	Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X	Windows, Unix-like, Mac OS X	Yes	Open source file format. Files are compressed individually with either gzip, bzip2 or lzo.
.dd		DiskDoubler	Mac OS			obsolete
.dgc	application/x-dgc-compressed	DGCA	Windows	Windows
.dmg	application/x-apple-diskimage	Apple Disk Image	Mac OS X	Mac OS X, Windows, Linux	Yes	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 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption.
.gca	application/x-gca-compressed	GCA				The predecessor of DGCA.
.ha		[2]	Originally DOS	Originally DOS	Yes, but may be covered by patents	DOS era format; uses arithmetic/Markov coding
.hki		WinHKI	MS Windows	MS Windows	No	HKI
.ice		ICE	Windows	Windows	Yes	Produced by ICEOWS program. Excels at text file compression.
.j		Jar	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Jar archive, the successor to ARJ
.kgb		KGB Archiver	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Open sourced archiver with compression using the PAQ family of algorithms and optional encryption.
.lzh, .lha	application/x-lzh	LHA	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Yes	The standard format on Amiga.
.lzx	application/x-lzx	LZX	Amiga			Archiver originally used on The Amiga. Now copied by Microsoft to use in their .cab and .chm 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.
.paq6, .paq7, .paq8 and variants		PAQ	Unix-like and Windows	Unix-like and Windows	Yes	An experimental open source packager (http://mattmahoney.net/dc)
.pea		PeaZip	Linux and Windows	Linux and Windows	Yes	Open source archiver supporting authenticated encryption, volume spanning, customizable object level and volume level integrity checks (form CRCs to SHA-512 and Whirlpool hashes), fast deflate based compression
.pim		PIM	Windows	Windows	Yes	The format from the PIM - a freeware compression tool by Ilia Muraviev. It uses an LZP-based compression algorithm with set of filters for executable, image and audio files.
.pit		PackIt	Mac OS			obsolete
.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	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Yes	A proprietary archive format, second in popularity to .zip files.
.rk		RK and WinRK [3]	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 proprietary algorithms.
.sda		Self Dissolving ARChive	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	N/A	SDAs refer to Self Dissolving ARC files, and are based on the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 versions of ARC, originally written by Chris Smeets. While the files share the same extension, they are not compatible between platforms. That is, an SDA created on a Commodore 64 but run on a Commodore 128 in Commodore 128 mode will crash the machine, and vice-versa. The intended successor to SDA is SFX.
.sea		Self Extracting Archive	Mac OS	Mac OS (implicitly)		A pre-Mac OS X Self-Extracting Archive format. StuffIt, Compact Pro, Disk Doubler and others could create .sea files, though the StuffIt versions were the most common.
.sen		Scifer	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Scifer Archive with internal header
.sfx		Self Extracting Archive	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	N/A	SFX is a Self Extracting Archive which uses the LHArc compression algorithm. It was originally developed by Chris Smeets on the Commodore platform, and runs primarily using the CS-DOS extension for the Commodore 128. Unlike its predecessor SDA, SFX files will run on both the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 regardless of which machine they were created on.
.sit	application/x-stuffit	StuffIt	Originally Mac OS, now multiple	Originally Mac OS, now multiple	Yes	A compression format common on Apple Macintosh computers. Can be extracted with nulib command tool. The free StuffIt Expander is available for Windows and OS X.
.sitx	application/x-stuffitx	StuffIt X	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	The replacement for the .sit format that supports more compression methods, UNIX file permissions, long file names, very large files, more encryption options, data specific compressors (JPEG, Zip, PDF, 24-bit image, MP3). The free StuffIt Expander is available for Windows and OS X.
.sqx		SQX	Windows	Windows		A royalty-free compressing format
.tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.Z, .tar.bz2, .tbz2, .tar.lzma, .tlz	application/x-gtar	tar with gzip, compress, bzip2, or lzma	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.
.uca		PerfectCompress	Windows	Windows	No	Based on PAQ, RZM, CSC, CCM, and 7zip. The format consists of a PAQ, RZM, CSC, or CCM compressed file and an manifest with compression settings stored in a 7z archive.[7]
.uha		UHarc	DOS/Windows	DOS/Windows	Yes	A high compression rate archive format originally for DOS.
.wim		Windows Image	Windows	Windows	Yes	File-based disk image format developed to deploy Microsoft Windows.
.xar		XAR	Multiple	Multiple	Yes
.xp3		KiriKiri	Windows	Windows	Yes	Native format of the Open Source KiriKiri Visual Novel engine. Uses combination of block splitting and zlib compression. The filenames and pathes are stored in UTF-16 format. For integrity check, the Adler-32 hashsum is used. For many commercial games, the files are encrypted (and decoded on runtime) via so-called "cxdec" module, which implements xor-based encryption.
.yz1		YZ1	Windows, DOS, Linux	Windows, DOS, Linux	Yes	Yamazaki zipper archive. Compression format used in DeepFreezer archiver utility created by Yamazaki Satoshi. Read and write support exits in TUGZip, IZArc and ZipZag
.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 as well.
.zoo	application/x-zoo	zoo	Multiple	Multiple	Yes
.zz		Zzip	Multiple	Multiple	Yes	Archiver with a compression algorithm based on the Burrows-Wheeler transform method.

Data Recovery

File extension(s)[1]	MIME type[2]	Official name[3]	Platform[4]	Description
.ecc		dvdisaster error-correction file	Multiple	File format used by dvdisaster to be used for data recovery when discs become damaged or partially unreadable.
.par .par2	application/x-par2	Parchive file	Multiple	File format used in conjunction with any archive format to provide redundancy and data recovery, most often in newsgroup distribution of binary files.

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} File extensions may differ across platforms. The case of these extensions may differ on case-insensitive platforms.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} 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. ^ ^{a b c d} Official names may be disputed.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} 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.
6. ^ "Restoring with free software" indicates whether the format can be restored using an extraction tool that is free software.
7. ^ UCA is a PerfectCompress format. More information available at http://moises-studios.110mb.com/perfectcompress

Platforms

• Unix-like — Systems such as Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.
• GNU/Linux — Common only on Linux.
• Macintosh — Available for all versions of the Mac OS.
• Mac OS X — Only available on Mac OS X; OS X is also usually compatible with Unix-like formats.
• Windows — Microsoft Windows, always includes 32-bit x86 and often 64-bit x86-64 and IA-64 versions.
• Amiga
• Commodore 64 - Runs natively on the Commodore 64.
• Commodore 128 - Runs natively on the Commodore 128.
• Commodore 128 - Runs on the Commodore 128 using the CS-DOS OS extension.
• GEOS - Runs on the Commodore 64/128 using the GEOS operating system.

See also

• Comparison of archive formats
• Comparison of file archivers
• Archive file
• zlib
• Solid compression

External links

• Archive and Compressed file extensions