Archive Formats

Purpose

Format-specific guides for working with different archive types supported by Excavate.

Supported Formats

Excavate supports extraction from 10+ archive formats:

Format	Extension(s)	Description
CAB	.cab	Microsoft Cabinet files
CPIO	.cpio	Unix CPIO archives
GZIP	.gz, .tar.gz	GZIP compression
MSI	.msi	Windows Installer packages
RPM	.rpm	Red Hat Package Manager
7-Zip	.7z, .exe	7-Zip archives
TAR	.tar	Unix tape archives
XAR/PKG	.xar, .pkg	macOS packages
XZ	.xz, .tar.xz	XZ compression
ZIP	.zip	Standard ZIP archives

Format Guides

Select a format for detailed information:

• CAB Format - Microsoft Cabinet files

• MSI Format - Windows Installer packages

• RPM Format - Red Hat packages

• 7-Zip Format - High compression archives

• TAR Format - Unix tape archives

• XAR/PKG Format - macOS packages

Format Detection

Excavate detects archive format by file extension:

# Extension determines format
Excavate::Archive.new('file.zip')   # Uses ZipExtractor
Excavate::Archive.new('file.tar')   # Uses TarExtractor
Excavate::Archive.new('file.msi')   # Uses OleExtractor

For .exe files, Excavate tries 7-Zip first, then CAB:

# May be 7-Zip or CAB self-extracting
Excavate::Archive.new('installer.exe').extract(recursive_packages: true)

See Also

• Format Comparison - Compare format capabilities

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Table of contents

• CAB Format
• MSI Format
• RPM Format
• 7-Zip Format
• TAR Format
• XAR/PKG Format
• Format Comparison