7z(1)                                                         General Commands Manual                                                        7z(1)

NAME

       7z - A file archiver with highest compression ratio

SYNOPSIS

       7z [adeltux] [-] [SWITCH] <ARCHIVE_NAME> <ARGUMENTS>...

DESCRIPTION

       7-Zip  is  a file archiver with the highest compression ratio. The program supports 7z (that implements LZMA compression algorithm), LZMA2,
       XZ, ZIP, Zip64, CAB, RAR (if the non-free p7zip-rar package is installed), ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM, ISO,  most  filesystem  images
       and DEB formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format.

       7z uses plugins to handle archives.

FUNCTION LETTERS

       a      Add

       d      Delete

       e      Extract

       l      List

       t      Test

       u      Update

       x      eXtract with full paths

SWITCHES

       -ai[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard}
              Include archives

       -ax[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard}
              eXclude archives

       -bd    Disable percentage indicator

       -i[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard}
              Include filenames

       -l     don't  store  symlinks;  store  the files/directories they point to (CAUTION : the scanning stage can never end because of recursive
              symlinks like 'ln -s .. ldir')

       -m{Parameters}
              Set Compression Method (see /usr/share/doc/p7zip-full/DOCS/MANUAL/switches/method.htm for a list of methods)

       -mhe=on|off
              7z format only : enables or disables archive header encryption (Default : off)

       -o{Directory}
              Set Output directory

       -p{Password}
              Set Password

       -r[-|0]
              Recurse subdirectories (CAUTION: this flag does not do what you think, avoid using it)

       -sfx[{name}]
              Create SFX archive

       -si    Read data from StdIn (eg: tar cf - directory | 7z a -si directory.tar.7z)

       -so    Write data to StdOut (eg: % echo foo | 7z a dummy -tgzip -si -so > /dev/null)

       -slt   Sets technical mode for l (list) command

       -t{Type}
              Type of archive (7z, zip, gzip, bzip2 or tar. 7z format is default)

       -v{Size}[b|k|m|g]
              Create volumes

       -u[-][p#][q#][r#][x#][y#][z#][!newArchiveName]
              Update options

       -w[path]
              Set Working directory

       -x[r[-|0]]]{@listfile|!wildcard}
              Exclude filenames

       -y     Assume Yes on all queries

DIAGNOSTICS

       7-Zip returns the following exit codes:

              0      Normal (no errors or warnings detected)

              1      Warning (Non fatal error(s)). For example, some files cannot be read during compressing. So they were not compressed

              2      Fatal error

              7      Bad command line parameters

              8      Not enough memory for operation

              255    User stopped the process with control-C (or similar)

Backup and limitations
       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.

       On Linux/Unix, in order to backup directories you must use tar :
        - to backup a directory  : tar cf - directory | 7za a -si directory.tar.7z
        - to restore your backup : 7za x -so directory.tar.7z | tar xf -

       If you want to send files and directories (not the owner of file) to others Unix/MacOS/Windows users, you can use the 7-zip format.

         example : 7za a directory.7z  directory

       Do not use "-r" because this flag does not do what you think.

       Do not use directory/* because of ".*" files (example : "directory/*" does not match "directory/.profile")

EXAMPLE 1
       7z a -t7z -m0=lzma -mx=9 -mfb=64 -md=32m -ms=on archive.7z dir1
              adds all files from directory "dir1" to archive archive.7z using "ultra settings"

       -t7z   7z archive

       -m0=lzma
              lzma method

       -mx=9  level of compression = 9 (Ultra)

       -mfb=64
              number of fast bytes for LZMA = 64

       -md=32m
              dictionary size = 32 megabytes

       -ms=on solid archive = on

EXAMPLE 2
       7z a -sfx archive.exe dir1
              add all files from directory "dir1" to SFX archive archive.exe (Remark : SFX archive MUST end with ".exe")

EXAMPLE 3
       7z a -mhe=on -pmy_password archive.7z a_directory
              add all files from directory "a_directory" to the archive "archive.7z" (with data and header archive encryption on)

SEE ALSO

       7za(1), 7zr(1), bzip2(1), gzip(1), zip(1)

HTML Documentation
       /usr/share/doc/p7zip-full/DOCS/MANUAL/index.htm

AUTHOR

       Written for Debian by Mohammed Adnene Trojette.

Mohammed Adnene Trojette                                         September 1 2006                                                            7z(1)