Pack (compression)

PackFilename extension| `.z`

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Type of format| data compression

Pack is a legacy Unix shell compression program based on Huffman coding.[1][2]

The unpack utility will restore files to their original state after they have been compressed using the pack utility. If no files are specified, the standard input will be uncompressed to the standard output.

Although obsolete, support for packed files exists in modern compression tools such as gzip[3] and 7-zip.

## Contents

* 1 Description of program
* 2 See also
* 3 References
* 4 External links

## Description of program

Files compressed by pack are typically given the extension ".z" (not to be confused with the ".Z" of compress). Files can be returned to their original state using unpack. In addition, there may also be a pcat command which reads in a compressed file and sends its output to stdout.

## See also

* Data compression
* Image compression
* List of Unix commands

## References

1. ↑ `[[[:Template:Man/v8]] pack(Template:Man/v8)]` – Template:Man/v8
2. ↑ `pack(1)` – Solaris 10 User Commands Reference Manual
3. ↑ Holen, Vidar. "An ode to pack: gzip's forgotten decompressor". https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/blog/?p=691.

## External links

* pack(1) in The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2, 1997, opengroup.org
* C.4 Utilities in The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, opengroup.org – indicates pack as excluded
* `[[[:Template:Man/v8]] pack(Template:Man/v8)]` – Template:Man/v8
* `pack(1)` – Solaris 10 User Commands Reference Manual
* Pack command Manual

* v
* t
* e

Data compression software

Archivers with
compression
(comparison)|

| Free software|

* 7-Zip
* Archive Manager
* Ark
* Expander
* FreeArc
* Info-ZIP
* KGB Archiver
* PAQ
* PeaZip
* tar
* XAD (decompression only)
* Xarchiver
* Zipeg
* ZPAQ

|

Freeware|

* Filzip
* LHA
* StuffIt Expander (decompression only)
* The Unarchiver (decompression only)
* TUGZip
* ZipGenius

Commercial|

* ARC
* ALZip
* Archive Utility
* ARJ
* BetterZip
* JAR
* MacBinary
* PKZIP/SecureZIP
* PowerArchiver
* StuffIt
* WinAce
* WinRAR
* WinZip

Non-archiving
compressors|

| Generic|

* bzip2
* compress
* gzip
* lzip
* lzop
* pack
* rzip
* Snappy
* XZ Utils

|

For code|

UPX

Audio
compression
(comparison)|

| Lossy|

* Fraunhofer FDK AAC
* Nero AAC Codec
* Freeware Advanced Audio Coder (FAAC)
* Helix DNA Producer
* l3enc
* LAME
* TooLAME
* libavcodec
* libcelt
* libopus
* libspeex
* Musepack
* libvorbis
* Windows Media Encoder

|

Lossless|

* ALAC
* FLAC
* libavcodec
* Monkey's Audio
* mp4als
* OptimFROG
* Shorten
* TTA (True Audio)
* WavPack

Video
compression
(comparison)|

| Lossy|

| MPEG-4 ASP|

* 3ivx
* DivX
* Nero Digital
* FFmpeg
* HDX4
* Xvid

|

H.264 /
MPEG-4 AVC|

* CoreAVC
* Blu-code
* DivX
* FFmpeg
* Nero Digital
* OpenH264
* QuickTime
* x264

HEVC|

* DivX
* x265

Others|

* CineForm
* Cinepak
* Daala
* DNxHD
* Helix DNA Producer
* Indeo
* libavcodec
* Schrödinger (Dirac)
* SBC
* Sorenson
* VP7
* libtheora
* libvpx
* Windows Media Encoder

Lossless|

* FFV1
* Huffyuv
* Lagarith
* MSU Lossless
* YULS

* See also: compression methods and compression formats

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