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 | 1 s |
| cpio | .cpio | Bell Labs | 1983 Unix System V | ? | Archive | Partial, select formats only | No | No | No | 1 s |
| Shell Archive (shar and makeself) | .shar, .run | ? | 1994 4.4BSD | Original | Archive | Yes, commonly MD5 | Partial | Partial | Partial | arbitrary (typically 1 s) |
| Tape Archive (tar) | .tar | Bell Labs | 1975 Version 6 Unix | ? | Archive | Partial, metadata only. Full integrity providable by filters such as 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 | 2 s |
| 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 | ? |
| FreeArc | .arc | Bulat Ziganshin | 2006 | LZMA, PPMD, TrueAudio | Compressed archive | Yes | Yes | Yes, AES, Blowfish, Twofish and Serpent | 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 | 2 s, 1 s, 6.5536 ms, 25.6 µs or 100 ns 3 |
| RK | .rk | M Software, Ltd. | 2004 | Original | Compressed archive | Yes | No | Yes, AES, Square, Twofish | Yes | 1 s |
| 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 | 1 s |
| 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 | ? | ? | ? | 1 s |
| 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 | 2 s |
| Java Archive (JAR4) | .jar | Sun Microsystems | 1997 JDK 1.1 | PKZIP | Software package | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of Archive Formats
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