Comparison of archive formats
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There are many popular computer data archive formats for creating and maintaining archive files. The tables below compare many popular archive formats.
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[edit] Features
The table compares various features column-by-column in the table below:
[edit] Purpose
The earliest use of archive formats was for backup, mobility, and archiving. Improved versions of archive formats added the ability to compress the data to consume less storage space and network bandwidth. There are multiple compression algorithms available to statistically compress data. Some kinds of data can be highly compressed and some kinds of data do not benefit from compression. Currently, archive formats are also used to package software files for distribution, installation, and execution.
[edit] Filename extension
The DOS and Windows operating systems required filenames to include a three-character extension to identify the file type and use. Filename extensions must be unique for each type of file. Many operating systems identify a file's type from its contents without the need for an extension in its name. However, the use of three-character extensions has been embraced as a useful and efficient shorthand for identifying file types—both for computer software, and for humans.
[edit] Integrity check
Archive files are often stored on magnetic media, which is subject to data storage errors. Early tape media had a higher rate of errors than is expected for magnetic media today. Many archive formats contain extra data embedded in the files in order to detect data storage or transmission errors, and the software used to read the archive files contain logic to detect errors.
[edit] Recovery record
Many archive formats contain redundant data embedded in the files in order to detect data storage or transmission errors, and the software used to read the archive files contain logic to detect and correct errors.
[edit] Encryption
In order to protect the data being stored or transferred from being read if intercepted, many archive formats include the capability to encrypt the data. There are multiple mathematical algorithms available to encrypt data.
[edit] Comparison
| Format | Filename extension | Created by | Introduced in | Based on | Purpose | Integrity check | Recovery record | Encryption supported | Unicode filenames | Modification date resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archiving only | ||||||||||
| Archive (ar) | .a | CSRG | 0000 ? | Original | Archive | No | No | No | No | ? |
| cpio | .cpio | Bell Labs | 1983 Unix System V | ? | Archive | Partial, select formats only | No | No | No | ? |
| Shell Archive (shar and makeself) | .shar, .run | ? | 1994 4.4BSD | Original | Archive | Yes, commonly MD5 | Partial | Partial | Partial | ? |
| Tape Archive (tar) | .tar | Bell Labs | 1975 Version 6 Unix | ? | Archive | Partial, metadata only, by itself, but yes if used with gzip | No | No | Optional1 | 1 s |
| Extended TAR format (pax) | .tar | OpenGroup | 2001 | Sun proposal + TAR | Archive | metadata | No | No | Yes | arbitrary (typically 1 ns) |
| BagIt | - | The Library of Congress | 2007 | file system | Archive | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Archiving and Compression | ||||||||||
| 7z | .7z | Igor Pavlov | 2000 | LZMA | Compressed archive | Yes | No | Yes, AES | Yes | 1 ms (maybe better?) |
| ACE | .ace | Marcel Lemke | 0000 ? | ? | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes, Blowfish | Yes | ? |
| AFA | .afa | Vicente Sánchez-Alarcos | 2009 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes, AES and CAST | Yes | ? |
| ARC | .arc | Thom Henderson (SEA) | 1985 | ? | Compressed archive | CRC16 | No | weak XOR only | No | 2s |
| ARJ | .arj | Robert Jung | 1991 | AR001 and AR002 | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| Cabinet | .cab | Microsoft | 1992 Windows 3.1 | ? | Compressed archive | Optional PKCS7 Authenticode signature | No | Optional (with SDK) | Yes | 2s |
| Compact File Set | .cfs | Joe Lowe (Pismo Technic Inc.) | 2008, April 1 | ZIP/LZMA | Compressed archive | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Compact Pro | .cpt | Bill Goodman | 1990, May 5 (as "Compactor") | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? |
| Disk Archive (DAR) | .dar | Denis Corbin | 2002 | Original | Compressed encrypted archive | Yes | Yes2 | Yes | Yes | 1 s |
| DGCA | .dgc | Shin-ichi Tsuruta | 2001 | GCA | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Format | Filename extension | Created by | Introduced in | Based on | Purpose | Integrity check | Recovery record | Encryption supported | Unicode filenames | Modification Date Resolution |
| LHA (also LZH) | .lzh, .lha | Haruyasu Yoshizaki | 1988 | Frozen | Compressed archive | Only on recent LHA releases | No | No | No | 1–2 s |
| LZX | .lzx | Jonathan Forbes and Tomi Poutanen | 1995 | LZ77 | Compressed archive | Only on recent LZX releases | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Sparc | .arc | David Pilling | 1989 | ? | Compressed archive | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| WinMount format | .mou | ? | 2007 | ? | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Macintosh Disk Image | .dmg | Apple Computer | 1991 Macintosh System 7 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Partition Image (PartImage) | ? | François Dupoux and Franck Ladurelle | 2000 | ? | Compressed archive | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PAQ (Several formats) | ? | Matt Mahoney | 2002–2006 | Original | Compressed archive | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| PEA | .pea | Giorgio Tani | 2006 | Original, Deflate based compression | Compressed archive | Yes Adler32, CRC32, CRC64, MD5, SHA1, RIPEMD-160, SHA256, SHA512, Whirlpool | No | Yes Authenticated Encryption, AES128 and AES256 in EAX mode | Yes system dependent | Yes arbitrary |
| PIM | .pim | Ilia Muraviev | 2004–2008 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Quadruple D | .qda | Taku Hayase (aka sandman) | 1997 | ? | Compressed archive | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RAR | .rar | Eugene Roshal | 1993 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes, AES | Yes | 0.1 µs or 2 s3 |
| RK | .rk | M Software, Ltd. | 2004 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | No | Yes, AES, Square, Twofish | Yes | 1s |
| StuffIt (also SIT) | .sit | Raymond Lau | 1987 | ? | Compressed archive | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| StuffIt X (also SITx) | .sitx | Aladdin/Allume Systems | 2002 | ? | Compressed archive | ? | Optional | Yes, RC4,Blowfish,AES,DES | Yes | ? |
| UltraCompressor II | .uc .uc0 .uc2 .ucn .ur2 .ue2 | Nico de Vries | 1992–1996 | LZ77 and Huffman coding | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes, triple DES | ? | ? |
| Windows Image | .wim | Microsoft | 0000 ? | Original | Compressed archive | Optional | ? | No | Yes | ? |
| ZIP (also PKZIP) | .zip | Phil Katz | 1989 | DEFLATE | Compressed archive | Yes | No | Yes, AES | Yes | 1 s |
| Format | Filename extension | Created by | Introduced in | Based on | Purpose | Integrity check | Recovery record | Encryption supported | Unicode filenames | Modification Date Resolution |
| Software Packaging and Distribution | ||||||||||
| Debian package (deb) | .deb | Debian | 1994 Debian 0.91 | ar, tar, and gzip | Software package | Yes | No | No | Yes | 1s |
| Macintosh Installer | .pkg, .mpkg (metapackage) | NeXT | 1989 NeXTSTEP 1.0 | pax and gzip | Software package | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| RPM Package Manager (RPM) | .rpm | Red Hat | 1995 Red Hat Linux 1.0 | cpio and gzip | Software package | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Slackware Package | .tgz | Patrick Volkerding | 1993 Slackware 1.0 | tar and gzip | Software package | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Windows Installer (also MSI) | .msi | Microsoft | 2000 Windows 2000 | OLE Structured Storage, Cabinet and SQL | Software package | Optional PKCS7 Authenticode Signature | No | No | No | 2s |
| Java Archive (JAR4) | .jar | Sun Microsystems | 1997 JDK 1.1 | PKZIP | Software package | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
[edit] Notes
^1 While the original tar format uses the ASCII character encoding, current implementations use the UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding, which is backwards compatible with ASCII.
^2 Supports the external Parchive program (par2).
^3 From 3.20 release RAR can store modification, creation and last access time with the precision up to 0.0000001 second (= 0.1 µs). [1]
^4 There is also JAR the archiver by Robert K. Jung.
[edit] See also
- List of archive formats
- Comparison of file archivers
- Comparison of file systems
- List of file systems
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