7-zip adds official support for Linux

TheDcoder

Upstream 7-Zip Adds Preliminary Linux Support

While there has been 7-Zip file support on Linux via the p7zip project, the upstream 7-Zip 21.01 Alpha release has finally introduced native Linux support.

Igor Pavlov announced the availability this week of 7-Zip for Linux -- the first "official" 7-Zip port to Linux and similar to the p7zip implementation.

This command-line-only Linux version was announced as part of 7-Zip 21.01 Alpha. That alpha release also improves 7-Zip's 64-bit ARM support, provides a number of bug fixes, and more.

Via this thread are 7-Zip 21.01 Alpha builds for Linux x86_64, ARM64, x86 32-bit, and ARMv7 HF.

A stable 7-Zip 21.01 release is expected soon.

While seeing official Linux support out of 7-Zip is exciting, there isn't yet the source code drop of 21.01 with it continuing to seemingly be developed behind closed doors. 7-Zip 21.01 is still GNU LGPL licensed.

Lead developer Igor Pavlov also noted in the aforelinked thread that at the moment p7zip offers easier build scripts for the moment though some have volunteered to help improve the 7-Zip Linux support when sources are available. There are also some differences in the command line handling between 7-Zip and p7zip at this point. In any case, nice finally seeing official Linux support for 7-Zip.

Once the source is posted, I'll be updating our 7-Zip compression benchmark.

(Source)

I thought I'd share this since EasyCodeIt is also an effort to add Linux support to our beloved tools called AutoIt 🙂

7-zip was my favorite archiving program as well as the favorite archiving format, sadly it was not cross-platform so I couldn't use it after switching to Linux. There is a independent project called p7zip (I assume p stands for POSIX) but it is outdated and has several known vulnerabilities, so it was not an option for normal usage.

Happy to see that Igor has made the effort to support Linux, and thus opening the gates to other platforms as well!

TheSaint

Interesting, and I must admit that 7-Zip is also my favorite compression program for files and folders, though I probably use it more for the ZIP format than 7Z. I am presuming you have been able to open 7Z files for years in Linux, just not able to create them until p7zip came along?

Odd in some ways, that 7-Zip has taken this long to start properly supporting Linux.

TheDcoder

TheSaint I am presuming you have been able to open 7Z files for years in Linux, just not able to create them until p7zip came along?

I think you misunderstood what p7zip is, it is an independent project started to port the tool to other *nix OSes... the development for p7zip has been stagnant for a while and there are known security issues in it, so people generally avoided it.

Now the author of 7-zip has decided to finally add support for Linux & co. in the official 7-zip program, not as a separate or independent program. So basically the same as EasyCodeIt because it officially supports both Windows and Linux with a single codebase... as opposed to having separate codebases/programs for both Linux and Windows.

TheSaint Odd in some ways, that 7-Zip has taken this long to start properly supporting Linux.

Not really though, maybe Igor didn't really bother with Linux until shit started hitting the fan with Windows 10... and maybe now he has finally seen the light and realized that Linux is the only way 😛

Seriously though, there wasn't much demand for 7-zip support in Linux, most people are happy with gzip in Linux land... and also with the newer zst compression rising in popularity recently.

I guess the reason 7-zip was never widely adopted in Linux because it does both archiving and compressing, something which doesn't really fit well with the Unix philosophy of having a single tool for a single job. tar is the format for archiving files and directories (packing them into a single file) and gzip/zst for compressing the file itself... very modular in approach. You can also skip the archiving bit if you just want to compress a single file, or vice-a-versa if you don't want compression.

TheDcoder

Just did some research and found that p7zip was added to SourceForge on 2004-06-12, so it is ~17 years old.

TheDcoder I guess the reason 7-zip was never widely adopted in Linux because it does both archiving and compressing

I forgot another major reason, the tar archive format also preserves metadata like user, group, permissions etc. of files while 7-zip doesn't... just like most (if not all) Windows archiving programs.

With tar you can do a whole system transfer with all files intact because of the precise archiving which preserves all metadata... you can transfer your OS across any medium as long as you have access to the file system. Something which is not possible by other major archivers as far as I am aware.

TheSaint

Seems like you misunderstood me with your first reply, and you didn't really answer what I asked.
Until p7zip came along, could you create a 7Z file in Linux?
That is not claiming that p7zip does the creating, rather the enabling of 7-Zip to.

Linux has been around a long time, and users of Linux no doubt get source files all over the place, such as ZIP files for instance. Surely many also come across 7Z files, which I presume GZip can deal with, along with RAR files.

So it just seems a bit odd after all this time, that with all the file sharing that has been happening for many decades, that the read (open) side of it has only been catered for, and not the write (create) ... unless I am missing something ... maybe Gzip or some other app can create 7Z files in Linux. As you know, I am no real Linux expert ... which would make me wonder why 7-Zip is bothering now, after all this time ... especially in light of what you say about TAR and GZIP.

TheDcoder

TheSaint Until p7zip came along, could you create a 7Z file in Linux?

Nope, but I think p7zip is pretty old... perhaps as old as myself (~20 years).

TheSaint Surely many also come across 7Z files, which I presume GZip can deal with, along with RAR files.

No actually, gzip cannot deal with another format other than its own... in line with the unix philosophy i.e. a single tool for a single job.

RAR has the unrar program for Linux, and p7zip was created to fill the void of an official 7-zip program.

TheSaint the read (open) side of it has only been catered for, and not the write (create)

p7zip can do both, and it has been around for a while.

TheSaint

Well there you go, had no idea, and only makes the recent 7-Zip change of attitude more mysterious.

TheDcoder

7-Zip 21.02 Alpha Released With Sources

Earlier this year with v21.02 Alpha, 7-Zip added initial Linux support upstream at long last. Out this week is now version 21.02 alpha that continues to refine the Linux support while also now punctually publishing the source code too.

7-Zip 21.01 Alpha added official Linux support where as up to now Linux users mainly have been left to the p7zip alternative.

7-Zip 21.02 Alpha was issued on Thursday and continues refining the Linux support while still having Windows and macOS support too. The source code is also now published in-step with the new binaries. However, the 7-Zip sources still lack a nice build system so it's not straight-forward yet for Linux users to easily build this on your system for your compression/de-compression needs.

7-Zip 21.02 is delivering much faster LZMA/LZMA2 decompression in the ARM64 version on macOS and Linux by as much as 20₆₀% faster than previous versions. This new 7-Zip version also better deals with UTF-8 filenames and has improvements to its ZIP / TAR / NSIS code.

Downloads and additional information on 7-Zip 21.02 Alpha via SourceForge.

The source has been released! 🥳