Compression formats

[againsttheflow]

What exactly is the difference between and advantages/disadvantages of the different compression formats i.e. rar, zip, 7-zip and do extensions such as cab, tar, gzip, ace, z, jar, iso, and bz2 have to do w/ packing or some such? If so, how do they compare w/ the former?

 

[Zelig]

They offer different (and in many cases similar) features, with varying degrees of speed and compression.

rar, ace etc. are proprietary formats.

If you want to know about a specific format, wiki probably has a page, if it doesn't, you probably will never need to use that format.

Generally I recommend either zip or 7z, they're both open source, the former has nearly universal compatibility, and the latter has good compression and other features.

 

[echinococcus]

The latest WinRAR and 7Zip (which i recommend) also support >= 128bit AES encryption in their archives. Just dont forget to tick "encrypt filenames" in WinRAR

 

[Speedo]

I think RAR and 7z both support 256bit AES encryption.

IMO:
7z has the best compression, so it's best for the largest files. If you have a lot of files in an archive, though, and just need to extract one of them, you might have to wait a few minutes for it to sort through the archive.

RAR I generally use for data storage/backup and etc. It's able to add redundancy into an archive so that archives can be recovered even if they're damaged. Zip definetly can't do think and I don't thin 7z can. Another cool thing about RAR is that you can hide data in images. Use "copy /b image.jpg+archive.rar newimage.jpg".

Zip of course is the best for smaller files that need to be distributed, because basically everyone is familiar with it.

 

[Ankka]

tar.gz and tar.bz2 are standard unix/linux package formats, gz is faster but bigger and bz2 OTOH a little slower but the packaging is better.

 

[GenMarshall]

Though WinRAR has an annoying nagware that nags you to register each time you run the program .

 

[Speedo]

Though WinRAR has an annoying nagware that nags you to register each time you run the program .

So pay the measly $29 for it. It's worth every penny.

 

[Zelig]

So pay the measly $29 for it. It's worth every penny.

No it isn't, 7-zip is free and opensource, and does the same things, other than compression to proprietary formats.

 

[Speedo]

No it isn't, 7-zip is free and opensource, and does the same things, other than compression to proprietary formats.

7-zip isn't bad for freeware, but if I had to use it on a daily basis the way I use WinRAR, it'd go nuts.

 

[againsttheflow]

Thanks guys, I did read your posts. I like people to acknowledge when others have answered their question otherwise you don't know if you should really take the time next time one's asked.