Getting Started

Purpose

This section covers everything you need to start using Excavate for archive extraction. Follow the guides in order for a complete introduction.

Learning Path

New to Excavate?

Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Install Excavate on your system

  2. Quick Start (5 minutes) - Extract your first archive

  3. Basic Usage - Learn the core operations

  4. Common Workflows - Practical patterns

Already familiar with Excavate?

Jump to specific topics:

Topics in This Section

Guide Description

Installation

Install Excavate on any platform

Quick Start

Extract your first archive in 5 minutes

Basic Usage

Core extraction operations

Common Workflows

Practical extraction patterns

Key Concepts

Before diving in, understand these core concepts:

Archive

A single file containing one or more files with metadata.

Recursive Extraction

Automatically extracting archives within archives (e.g., MSI → CAB → files).

Selective Extraction

Extracting only specific files from an archive.

Filter Pattern

Glob pattern for matching multiple files (e.g., */.ttf).

Pure Ruby

Excavate is a 100% pure Ruby gem:

  • No native extensions or compiled dependencies

  • Works on MRI, JRuby, and TruffleRuby

  • Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD

Next Steps

Start with Installation if you haven’t installed Excavate yet, or jump to Quick Start to begin extracting archives immediately.

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