In addition to 7z, the tool supports several other formats. For example, you can use it to compress and extract the following types of files:
[BZIP2, GZIP, 7z, TAR, ZIP, WIM, XZ]
However, not only this but 7zip tool can also be used to unpack several other types of files, including:
[SquashFS, UDF, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, CramFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, NTFS, XAR, etc.]According to the official documentation of the tool.
7ZIP - OTHER RESOURCES
For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a better compression ratio than PKZip and WinZip
- File manager
- Plugin for FAR Manager
- Available in 87 languages
- Command line version
- Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
- Automatic extraction capability for 7z format
- Integration with Windows Shell
7ZIP IS AN AWARD COMPACTION TOOL
If you're wondering what 7zip awards won, on Wikipedia, it looks like this:
In 2007, SourceForge.net awarded community choice awards for "Technical Design" and "Best Project".
In 2013, 7-Zip received the Elite award from Tom's Hardware due to superior speed and compression ratio.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD 7ZIP FOR LINUX?
Well, yes there is a command line version for Linux / Unix, and it is dubbed p7zip.
In this article, we will discuss how to install and use p7zip on Linux. Note that all instructions and commands mentioned in this tutorial have been tested on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and can be easily replicated to Debian.
DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING 7ZIP ON LINUX
You can easily download and install the p7zip tool on Linux using the following commands:
[#sudo apt-get install p7zip-fullHOW TO USE 7ZIP
#sudo apt-get install p7zip-rar]
The p7zip package installs a command line utility called 7z. See below:
[7z [linuxtux] [-] [switch] archive_name argument]
If this sounds a little complex, do not worry, because we will explain the use of 7z for beginners.
To begin with, let's understand how we can create a 7z file using this command.
To do this, assume that there is a directory called files that contains four files:
Now the task is to compress all 4 files into one file with the extension 7z, say all.7z.
[# mkdir linuxer
# cd linuxers
# touch lnx1 lnx2 lnx3 lnx4]
Ready, with the above commands we created our test environment, a directory called files with 4 files inside ...
RUN THE COMMAND TO COMPACT FILES WITH THE 7ZIP
Then, to do this, go to the files directory and run the following command:
[# cd linuxers
# 7z a filename.7z *]
After the above command is executed successfully, a file named "all.7z" will be created in your current working directory.
[# ls *.7z
filename.7z]
HOW TO EXTRACT A FILE WITH THE 7ZIP
Now, suppose you accidentally / intentionally delete the four files in the directory.
And you want to recover them by extracting the "all.7z" file that we just created.
This can be done by using the "e" parameter on the command line, as follows:
[# 7z e filename.7z]
This was the basics of compaction and extraction using the 7z tool.
HOW TO CREATE A ZIP FILE USING 7ZIP
Now suppose the requirement is to create a ".zip file." This can be done easily by using the following command:
[# cd arquivos
# 7z a filename.zip *]
To list your .zip files created:
[# ls *.zip
filename.zip]
HOW TO ADD NEW FILES IN A COMPILED FILE WITH 7ZIP?
The 7zip tool also allows you to easily update a file after its creation.
For example, suppose you created a file and then realized that something else needs to be added to it, instead of deleting the old file and creating a new one, you can simply update it with the new material you want to add.
For example, suppose the files directory now contains a total of 5 text files, and I want to add file 5 to the "all.7z" file as well. So I can do this by using the 'u' option on the 7z command. Here is the command:
[# cd linuxers
# touch lnx5]
The command above, just to create a new text file for our example:
[# 7z u filename.7z lnx*]
HOW TO LIST THE CONTENTS OF A COMPILED FILE WITH 7ZIP
One way to confirm that the updated file now contains a total of five files is to manually check the updated file by double-clicking it.
But if you want to do this through the command line, then you can use the 'l' option provided by the 7z command.
[# 7z l todos.7z]
HOW TO EXCLUDE SOMETHING WITHIN A COMPILED FILE WITH 7ZIP
If you want to delete something from a file created by 7z, you can do that too. In this case, the command-line option to use is 'd'. The general syntax of the command, however, remains the same.
[7z d [archive-name] [file-to-be-deleted] ]
Like this:
[# 7z d filename.7z lnx5]
Keep in mind that you will have to add a '-r' switch to the above command in case the file in question is inside a subdirectory that has been compressed.
The official 7z documentation does not recommend.
SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE UTILITY 7Z
I removed some points from within the documentation:
"DO NOT USE the 7-zip format for backup purpose on Linux / Unix because: - 7-zip does not store the owner/group of the file."
That is, 7zip is not a backup utility, to backup in Linux there are several tools with several functions.
"On Linux / Unix, in order to backup directories you must use tar: - to backup directory: tar cf - directory | 7za a -si directory.tar.7z "To compress directories with 7zip, it is recommended to the first package with the tar utilities, see the example of the official 7z documentation:
[#tar cf - directory | 7za a -si directory.tar.7z]
Here the example to unpack
[7za x -so directory.tar.7z | tar xf -]
CONCLUSION
As you may have noticed throughout this tutorial, 7zip is a really efficient compaction tool.
It is not only easy to install but easy to use as well.
Several documentation are available, we have the man pages, FAQ page, support on the official website of the tool, as well as an active mailing list on Sourceforge.
If you liked 7zip, try it as well.
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