List of archive formats

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

Archive formats by purpose

Archive formats are used for backups, mobility, and archiving. Many archive formats compress the data to consume less storage space and result in quicker transfer times as the same data is represented by fewer bytes. Another benefit is that files are combined into one archive file which has less overhead for managing or transferring. There are numerous compression algorithms available to losslessly compress archived data; some algorithms are designed to work better (smaller archive or faster compression) with particular data types. Archive formats are used by most operating systems to package software for easier distribution and installation than binary executables.

Archiving only

File extension(s)Template:Efn	MIME typeTemplate:Efn	Official nameTemplate:Efn	PlatformTemplate:Efn	Description
.a, .ar	application/Template:Nowrap	Unix Archiver	Unix-like	The traditional archive format on Unix-like systems, now used mainly for the creation of static libraries.
.cpio	application/Template:Nowrap	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/Template:Nowrap	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	application/Template:Nowrap	ISO-9660 image	Template:Varies	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<ref>Mozilla ARchive</ref>	Template:Varies	An archive format used by Mozilla for storing binary diffs. Used in conjunction with bzip2.
.sbx	application/Template:Nowrap	SeqBox<ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Varies	A single file container/archive that can be reconstructed even after total loss of file system structures.
.tar	application/Template:Nowrap	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)Template:Efn	MIME typeTemplate:Efn	Official nameTemplate:Efn	PlatformTemplate:Efn	Description
.br	application/Template:Nowrap	Brotli	all	Brotli is a compression algorithm developed by Google for textual web content, and typically achieves higher compression ratios than other algorithms for this use case.
.bz2	application/Template:Nowrap	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, .?XFTemplate:Efn		Template:AnchorFreeze/melt<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	QNX4, Unix-like and DOS	Old compressor for QNX4 OS. The compression algorithm is a modified LZSS, with an adaptive Huffman coding.
.genozip	application/Template:Nowrap	genozip	Linux, macOS, Windows	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
.gz	application/Template:Nowrap	gzip	Unix-like	GNU Zip, the primary compression format used by Unix-like systems. The compression algorithm is Deflate, which combines LZSS with Huffman coding.
.lz	application/Template:Nowrap	lzip	Unix-like	An alternate LZMA algorithm implementation, with support for checksums and ident bytes.
.lz4		LZ4	Unix-like	Algorithm developed by Yann Collet, designed for very high (de)compression speeds. It is an LZ77 derivative, without entropy encoding.
.lzma	application/Template:Nowrap	lzma	Unix-like	The LZMA compression algorithm as used by 7-Zip.
.lzo	application/Template:Nowrap	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 macOS decompress only	A compression program designed to do high compression on SF2 files (SoundFont).
.sz	application/Template:Nowrap	Snappy	Unix-like	A compression format developed by Google, and open-sourced in 2011. Snappy aims for very high speeds, reasonable compression, and maximum stability rather than maximum compression or compatibility with any other compression library. It is an LZ77 derivative, without entropy encoding.
.?Q?		SQ	CP/M and DOS	Squeeze: A program which compressed files using Huffman coding. 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 decompressed 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 unusual 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/Template:Nowrap	xz	Unix-like	A compression format using LZMA2 to yield high compression ratios. The LZMA algorithm is an LZ77 derivative, with entropy encoding in the form of range encoding.
.z	application/Template:Nowrap	pack	Unix-like	The traditional Huffman coding compression format.
.Z	application/Template:Nowrap	compress	Unix-like	The traditional LZW compression format.
.zst	application/Template:Nowrap	Zstandard	Cross-platform	Algorithm developed by Yann Collet at Facebook, combining high speed and high compression. It is an LZ77 derivative, with entropy encoding in the form of finite-state entropy and Huffman coding.
.??_			MS-DOS/Windows	Compression format(s) used by some DOS and Windows install programs. MS-DOS includes expand.exe to decompress 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)Template:Efn	MIME typeTemplate:Efn	Official nameTemplate:Efn	Creation platformTemplate:Efn	Restoration platformTemplate:Efn	Restorable with free softwareTemplate:Efn	Description
.7z	application/Template:Nowrap	7z	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Open source file format. Used by 7-Zip.
.s7z	application/Template:Nowrap	7zX	macOS	macOS, restoration on different platforms is possible although not immediate	Template: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).
.aar	application/Template:Nowrap	Apple Archive	macOS	macOS	Template:No	Created by Apple introduced with iOS 14 in 2020.
.ace	application/Template:Nowrap	ACE	Windows	Multiple	Template:Yes	Proprietary format
.afa	application/Template:Nowrap	AFA	UNIX-like	UNIX-like	Template: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/Template:Nowrap	ALZip	Windows	Multiple	Template:Yes	A mainly Korean format designed for very large archives.
.apk	application/Template:Nowrap	APK	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Android application package (variant of JAR file format).
.arc, .ark	application/Template:Nowrap	ARC	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Very popular in the early days of BBSes, one of the first to offer compression and archiving in a single program. Largely replaced by PKZIP.
.arc, .cdx	application/Template:Nowrap	FreeArc	Windows, Linux	Windows, Linux	Template:Yes	Open source file format developed by Bulat Ziganshin. A "FreeArc Next" version is under development which includes Zstandard support.
.arj	application/Template:Nowrap	ARJ	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Competitor to PKZIP in the 1990s, offered better multi-part archive handling.
.b1	application/Template:Nowrap	B1	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Open archive format, used by B1 Free Archiver<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
.b6z		B6Z	macOS	Multiple	Template:Yes	Compressed archive format B6Zip<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
.ba		Scifer	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Binary Archive with external header
.bh		BlakHole			Template:Yes	Proprietary format from the ZipTV Compression Components
.cab	application/Template:Nowrap	Cabinet	Windows	Multiple	Template:Yes	The Microsoft Windows native archive format, which is also used by many proprietary installers such as WISE.
.car		Compressia archive	Originally DOS, now DOS and Windows	Originally DOS, now DOS and Windows	Template:Yes	Created by Yaakov Gringeler; released last in 2003 (Compressia 1.0.0.1 beta), now apparently defunct. Free trial of 30 days lets user create and extract archives; after that it is possible to extract, but not to create.
.cfs	application/Template:Nowrap	Compact File Set	Windows, Unix-like including macOS	Multiple	Template:Yes	Open source file format.
.cpt		Compact Pro	Classic Mac OS	Multiple	Template:Yes	Compact Pro archive, a common archiver used on Mac platforms until about Mac OS 7.5.x. Competed with StuffIt; now obsolete.
.dar	application/Template:Nowrap	Disk Archiver	Unix-like including macOS	Unix-like including macOS, Windows	Template:Yes	Open source file format. Files are compressed individually with either gzip, bzip2 or lzo.
.dd		DiskDoubler	Classic Mac OS			Obsolete
.dgc	application/Template:Nowrap	DGCA	Windows	Windows
.dmg	application/Template:Nowrap	Apple Disk Image	macOS	macOS, Windows, Linux	Template: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.
.ear		EAR	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Enterprise Java Archive archive
.gca	application/Template:Nowrap	GCA				The predecessor of DGCA.
.genozip		Genozip<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Linux, macOS, Windows	Linux, macOS, Windows	Template:No	Optimized for (but not limited to) genomic file types such as FASTQ, BAM, VCF
.ha		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes, but may be covered by patents	DOS era format; uses arithmetic/Markov coding
.hki		WinHKI<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	MS Windows	MS Windows	Template:No	HKI
.ice		ICE	Windows	Windows	Template:Yes	Produced by ICEOWS program. Excels at text file compression.
.jar	application/Template:Nowrap	JAR	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Java archive, compatible with ZIP files
.kgb		KGB Archiver	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Open sourced archiver with compression using the PAQ family of algorithms and optional encryption.
.lzh, .lha	application/Template:Nowrap	LHA	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	The standard format on Amiga.
.lzx	application/Template:Nowrap	LZX	Amiga			Archiver originally used on The Amiga. Now copied by Microsoft to use in their .cab and .chm files.
.pak		PAK	HP NonStop	HP NonStop	Template:Yes<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	file format from NoGate Consultings, a rival from ARC-Compressor. .pak was also briefly used by the short lived MSDOS PKPAK program.
.partimg		PartImage	Multiple	Multiple	Template: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	Template:Yes	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
.pea		PeaZip	Linux and Windows	Linux and Windows	Template:Yes	Open source archiver supporting authenticated encryption, cascaded encryption, volume spanning, customizable object level and volume level integrity checks (form CRCs to SHA-512 and Whirlpool hashes), fast deflate based compression
.phar		PHAR	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	A package format to enable distribution of applications and libraries by bundling many PHP code files and other resources (e.g. images, stylesheets, etc.) into a single archive file
.pim		PIM	Windows	Windows	Template:Yes	Template:AnchorThe 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	Classic 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/Template:Nowrap	RAR	Originally DOS, now WinRAR	Multiple	Template:PartialTemplate:Efn	A popular proprietary archive format.
.rk		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Multiple	Multiple	Template:No	The format from a proprietary archiving package. Odd among proprietary 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	Template:Yes	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	Classic Mac OS	Classic 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	Template:Yes	Scifer Archive with internal header
.sfx		Self Extracting Archive	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	Commodore 64, Commodore 128	Template:Yes	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.
.shk		NuFX	Originally Apple II, now multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	An archive format designed for the Apple II series of computers. The canonical implementation is ShrinkIt, which can operate on disk images as well as files. Preferred compression algorithm is a combination of RLE and 12-bit LZW. Archives can be manipulated with the command-line NuLib tool, or the Windows-based CiderPress.
.sit	application/Template:Nowrap	StuffIt	Originally Classic Mac OS, now multiple	Originally Classic Mac OS, now multiple	Template:Yes	A compression format common on Apple Macintosh computers. The free StuffIt Expander is available for Windows and macOS.
.sitx	application/Template:Nowrap	StuffIt X	Multiple	Multiple	Template: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	Template:Yes	A royalty-free compressing format
.tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.Z, .tar.bz2, .tbz2, .tar.lz, .tlz, .tar.xz, .txz, .tar.zst	application/Template:Nowrap	tar with gzip, compress, bzip2, lzip, xz, or zstd	Multiple	Multiple	Template: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. Xarchiver supports the .tar.zst Archive/Compression format on Unix-like platforms.
.uc .uc0 .uc2 .ucn .ur2 .ue2		UltraCompressor II	DOS	DOS		UltraCompressor 2.3 was developed to act as an alternative to the then popular PKZIP application. The main feature of the application is its ability to create large archives. This means that compressed archives with the UC2 file extension can hold almost 1 million files.
.uca		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Windows	Windows	Template:No	Based on PAQ, RZM, CSC, CCM, and 7zip. The format consists of a PAQ, RZM, CSC, or CCM compressed file and a manifest with compression settings stored in a 7z archive.
.uha		UHarc	DOS/Windows	DOS/Windows	Template:Yes	A high compression rate archive format originally for DOS.
.war		WAR	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Web Application archive (Java-based web app)
.wim	application/Template:Nowrap	Windows Image	Windows	Windows	Template:Yes	File-based disk image format developed to deploy Microsoft Windows.
.xar	application/Template:Nowrap	XAR	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes
.xp3		KiriKiri	Windows	Windows	Template: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 proprietary 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	Template:Yes	Yamazaki zipper archive. Compression format used in DeepFreezer archiver utility created by Yamazaki Satoshi.<ref>DeepFreezerTemplate:Circular reference</ref> Read and write support exists in TUGZip, IZArc and ZipZag
.zip, .zipx	application/Template:Nowrap	ZIP	Originally DOS, now multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	The most widely used compression format on Microsoft Windows. Commonly used on Macintosh and Unix systems as well.
.zoo	application/Template:Nowrap	zoo	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes
.zpaq		ZPAQ	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Journaling (append-only) archive format with rollback capability. Supports deduplication and incremental update based on last-modified dates. Multi-threaded. Compresses in LZ77, BWT, and context mixing formats. Open source.
.zz		Zzip<ref>Zzip</ref>	Multiple	Multiple	Template:Yes	Archiver with a compression algorithm based on the Burrows–Wheeler transform method.

Data recovery

File extension(s)Template:Efn	MIME typeTemplate:Efn	Official nameTemplate:Efn	PlatformTemplate:Efn	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.
.ecsbx		Error-correcting SeqBox<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Multiple	Archive with forward error correction and sector level recoverability. Error-correcting version of SeqBox.<ref name="auto"/>
.par .par2	application/Template:Nowrap	Parchive file	Multiple	File format used in conjunction with any archive format to provide error correction and file recovery, most often in newsgroup distribution of binary files.
.rev		WinRAR recovery volume	Multiple	File format used with WinRAR rar volumes. The data recovery is error correction data which is provided in the form of open recovery records and/or recovery volumes, allowing reconstruction of good archives (including reconstruction of entirely volumes)

Comparison

Containers and compression

Format	Template:Verth	Created by	Introduced in	Based on	Template:Verth	Integrity checkTemplate:Efn	Recovery recordTemplate:Efn	Encryption supportedTemplate:Efn	Unicode filenames	Modification date resolution	Pre-processing	License
Archive (ar)	.a, .ar	CSRG	1971	Original	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1 s	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
cpio	.cpio	Bell Labs	1983 Unix System V	Template:Dunno	Template:No	Template:Partial, select formats only	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1 s	Template:No	Template:Dunno
Shell Archive (shar and makeself)	.shar, .run	James Gosling, Alan Hewett	1994 4.4BSD	Original	Template:No	Template:Yes, commonly MD5	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	arbitrary (typically 1 s)	Template:No	Template:Free
Tape Archive (tar)	.tar	Bell Labs	1975 Version 6 Unix	Template:Dunno	Template:No	Template:Partial, metadata only. Full integrity providable by filters such as gzip.	Template:No	Template:No	Template:OptionalTemplate:Efn	1 s	Template:No	Template:Dunno
Extended TAR format (pax)	.tar	OpenGroup	2001	Sun proposal + TAR	Template:No	metadata	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	arbitrary (typically 1 ns)	Template:No	Template:Dunno
BagIt	–	The Library of Congress	2007	file system	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
7z	.7z	Igor Pavlov	2000	LZMA, LZMA2, Bzip2, PPMd, Deflate	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, CRC32	Template:No	Template:Yes, AES-256	Template:Yes	100 ns<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Yes	Template:Free
ACE	.ace	Marcel Lemke	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	LZ77	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, Blowfish	Template:Yes	2s	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
AFA	.afa	Vicente Sánchez-Alarcos	2009	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, AES and CAST	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
ARC	.arc	Thom Henderson (SEA)	1985	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Bad	Template:No	2s	Template:No	Template:Dunno
ARJ	.arj	Robert Jung	1991	AR001 and AR002	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Bad	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
B1	.b1	Catalina Group Ltd	2011	LZMA	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes, AES	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Cabinet	.cab	Microsoft	1992 Windows 3.1	Deflate	Template:Yes	Template:Optional PKCS7 Authenticode signature	Template:No	Template:Optional (with SDK)	Template:Yes	2 s	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Compact File Set	.cfs	Joe Lowe (Pismo Technic Inc.)	2008	ZIP/LZMA	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Free
Compact Pro	.cpt	Bill Goodman	1990 (as "Compactor")	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
Disk Archive (DAR)	.dar	Denis Corbin	2002	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	1 μs	Template:Yes	Template:Free
DGCA	.dgc	Shin-ichi Tsuruta	2001	GCA	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
FreeArc	.arc	Bulat Ziganshin	2006	LZMA, PPMd, TTA	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, AES, Blowfish, Twofish and Serpent	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Free
LHA (also LZH)	.lzh, .lha	Haruyasu Yoshizaki	1988	Frozen	Template:Yes	Only on recent LHA releases	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1–2 s	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
LZX	.lzx	Jonathan Forbes and Tomi Poutanen	1995	LZ77	Template:Yes	Only on recent LZX releases	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
ISO image	.iso, .img, .ima	ISO 9660	1988	High Sierra Format	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Spark	.arc	David Pilling	1989	ARC	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Bad	Template:No	1 cs	Template:No	Template:Free
WinMount format	.mou	?	2007	?	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
Macintosh Disk Image	.dmg	Apple Computer	2001 Mac OS X	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Partition Image (PartImage)	.partimg	François Dupoux and Franck Ladurelle	2000	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Free
PAQ Family (Several formats)Template:Efn	.paq#*, .lpaq#*	Matt Mahoney	2002–2006	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
PEA	.pea	Giorgio Tani	2006	Original, Deflate based compression	Template:Yes	Template:Yes Adler32, CRC32, CRC64, MD5, SHA1, RIPEMD-160, SHA256, SHA512, Whirlpool	Template:No	Template:Yes Authenticated Encryption, AES128 and AES256 in EAX mode	Template:Yes system dependent	Template:Yes arbitrary	Template:Dunno	Template:Free
PIM	.pim	Ilia Muraviev	2004–2008	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Quadruple D	.qda	Taku Hayase (aka sandman)	1997	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
RAR	.rar	Eugene Roshal	1993	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, CRC32, BLAKE2	Template:Yes, Reed–Solomon	Template:Yes, AES-256 for RAR 5.0 archives	Template:Yes, UTF-8	2 s, 1 s, 6.5536 ms, 25.6 μs or 100 nsTemplate:Efn	Template:Dropped	Template:Nonfree
RK	.rk	M Software, Ltd.	2004	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes, AES, Square, Twofish	Template:Yes	1 s	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
NuFX	.shk	Andy Nicholas	1989	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	1 s	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
StuffIt (also SIT)	.sit	Raymond Lau	1987	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
StuffIt X (also SITx)	.sitx	Aladdin/Allume Systems	2002	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Optional	Template:Yes, RC4,Blowfish, AES,DES	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Nonfree
UltraCompressor II	.uc .uc0 .uc2 .ucn .ur2 .ue2	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	1992–1996	LZ77 and Huffman coding	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, triple DES	Template:Dunno	?	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Windows Image	.wim, .swm, .esd	Microsoft	2006	Original	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:PartialTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	100 ns	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
ZIP	.zip	Phil Katz	1989	Deflate	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes, AES	Template:Yes	1–2 s, depending on version	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
ZPAQ	.zpaq	Matt Mahoney	2009	PAQ	Template:Yes	Template:Yes, SHA-1	Template:No	Template:Yes, AES-256	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Free

Software packaging and distribution

Format	Filename extension	Created by	Introduced in	Based on	Integrity check	Recovery record	Encryption supported	Unicode filenames	Modification date resolution
Debian package (deb)	.deb	Debian	1994 Debian 0.91	ar, tar, and gzip, xz	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1 s
Macintosh Installer	.pkg, .mpkg (metapackage)	NeXT	1989 NeXTSTEP 1.0	pax and gzip	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno
RPM Package Manager (RPM)	.rpm	Red Hat	1995 Red Hat Linux 1.0	cpio and gzip	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	1 s
Slackware Package	.tgz	Patrick Volkerding	1993 Slackware 1.0	tar and gzip	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Windows Installer (also MSI)	.msi	Microsoft	2000 Windows 2000	OLE Structured Storage, Cabinet and SQL	Template:Optional PKCS7 Authenticode Signature	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2 s
MSIX	.appx, .appxbundle, .emsix, .emsixbundle, .msix, .msixbundle	Microsoft	2012 Windows 8	Zip	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	1 s
Java Archive (JARTemplate:Efn)	.jar	Sun Microsystems	1997 JDK 1.1	PKZIP	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno
Google Chrome extension package	.crx	Google	2009 (Chrome 4.0)	Zip	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Pacman	.pkg.tar.zst, .pkg.tar (no compression)	Judd Vinet	2001 (before ArchLinux 0.1)	tar and zstd<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> (formerly xz)	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	1 s

Features

Archive format	Built-in compression	Self-extracting	Directory structure	POSIX attributes	ACLs	Alternate data streams
cpio	Template:NoTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno
tar	Template:NoTemplate:Efn	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Some	Template:Partial
dar	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
ar	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno
pax	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno
dump	Template:NoTemplate:Efn	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno
shar	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno
makeself	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno
zip	Template:Yes	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
rar	Template:Yes	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes
ace	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
arj	Template:Yes	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Dunno
zoo	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
ISO 9660 (CD-ROM)	Template:NoTemplate:Efn	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Maybe	Template:No	Template:Dunno
cab	Template:Yes	Template:YesTemplate:Efn	Template:Dunno	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
rpm	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
deb	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
7z	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
Archive format	Built-in compression	Self-extracting	Directory Structure	POSIX attributes	ACLs	Alternate data streams

See also

• Archive file
• Comparison of file archivers
• Comparison of file systems
• List of file systems
• Solid compression
• zlib

References

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