[sclug] Multi-format uncompress

Alex Butcher lug at assursys.co.uk
Mon Jun 14 19:05:04 UTC 2004


On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Derek M Jones wrote:

> I have been searching for a multi-format uncompress/extract
> program (i.e., handles, .arc, lhz, .sit, .zip, ...).  These
> exist for windows (without source), but not for Linux.
> 
> I have found various programs that will uncompress individual
> formats (so a shell script could use file suffix information to
> call the appropriate program).  Does anybody know of a Linux
> program that can deduce the format by looking at the file
> contents (and do the uncompression)?

Use the output of the 'file' command to determine which extraction tool to
run. 

Alternatively, the Gnome tool 'file-roller' knows what to do for for most
common formats. Like all well-designed UNIX programs, it doesn't implement
compression/decompression internally, but runs external executables.

> derek

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher      Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK                      Need reliable and secure network systems?
PGP/GnuPG ID:0x271fd950                         <http://www.assursys.com/>


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