Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Comparison of file archivers
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file archivers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.
| Contents |
General information
Basic general information about the archivers: creator/company, license/price etc.
| Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Igor Pavlov | October 1, 2001 | 3.13 | Free | LGPL |
| GNU tar | GNU Project | 1989 | 1.15.1 | Free | GPL |
| Info-ZIP | Phil Katz | March, 1989 | 5.02 (WiZ) | Free | BSD-like |
| IZArc | IZSoftware | ? | 3.4.1.6 | Free | Proprietary |
| PKZIP | Phil Katz | 1989 | 8.0 | $24.95 | Proprietary |
| TUGZip | Christian Kindahl | August 18, 2002 | 3.2.0.0 | Free | Proprietary |
| WinZip | WinZip Computing, Inc | ? | 9.0 SR-1 | $29 | Proprietary |
| WinRAR | Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal | ? | 3.42 | $29 | Proprietary |
| Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license |
Operating system support
The operating systems the archivers can run on without emulation.
| Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Yes | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| GNU tar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Info-ZIP | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IZArc | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| PKZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| TUGZip | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| WinRAR | Yes | Yes2 | Yes2 | Yes2 | No |
| WinZip | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix |
Note (1): The UNIX-like system port is known as p7zip [1].
Note (2): The programs for other platforms are called simply RAR.
Archiver features
Information about what common archiver features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).
| Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| GNU tar | No | ? | No | No | Separate | Yes |
| Info-ZIP | Yes | ? | Yes3 | Yes | ? | ? |
| IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| PKZIP | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WinRAR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| WinZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion |
Note (3): The binaries distributed in the official site do not support file encryption because of legal issues. [2]
Archive format support (Reading)
Information about what archive formats the archivers can read. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the archiver or extensions that provide such functionality.
| ZIP | TAR | gzip | bzip2 | 7-Zip | RAR | LHA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU tar | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Info-ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| PKZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WinRAR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WinZip | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No4 |
| ZIP | TAR | gzip | bzip2 | 7-Zip | RAR | LHA |
Note (4): Requires external program [3].
Archive format support (Writing)
Information about what archive formats the archivers can write. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the archiver or extensions that provide such functionality.
| ZIP | TAR | gzip | bzip2 | 7-Zip | RAR | LHA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| GNU tar | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Info-ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| PKZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No5 | No |
| WinRAR | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| WinZip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No4 |
| ZIP | TAR | gzip | bzip2 | 7-Zip | RAR | LHA |
Note (5): Requires external plugin [4].
See also
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