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* BCJ2 - Converter for 32-bit x86 executables, see [[LZMA]]. Jump, call and conditional jump targets addresses are compressed separately.
* BCJ2 - Converter for 32-bit x86 executables, see [[LZMA]]. Jump, call and conditional jump targets addresses are compressed separately.
* [[Bzip2]] - Standard [[Burrows-Wheeler transform]] algorithm. Bzip2 uses (faster) Huffman coding, while Bzip is using (stronger) entropy coding.
* [[Bzip2]] - Standard [[Burrows-Wheeler transform]] algorithm. Bzip2 uses (faster) Huffman coding, while Bzip is using (stronger) entropy coding.
* [[DEFLATE]] - Standard [[LZ77]]-based algorithm
* [[DEFLATE (algorithm)|DEFLATE]] - Standard [[LZ77]]-based algorithm


7z also supports encryption with the [[AES]] algorithm with a 256-bit key. The key is generated from a user-supplied passphrase using an algorithm based on the [[SHA|SHA-256]] hash algorithm (with a large number of iterations, to make a brute-force search for the passphrase more difficult).
7z also supports encryption with the [[AES]] algorithm with a 256-bit key. The key is generated from a user-supplied passphrase using an algorithm based on the [[SHA|SHA-256]] hash algorithm (with a large number of iterations, to make a brute-force search for the passphrase more difficult).

Revision as of 01:54, 18 March 2005

In computing, 7z is an archive format which allows data compression using a number of compression algorithms. The format was initially implemented by the 7-Zip archiver but the file format is public and 7-Zip's implementation of it is publicly available under the GNU LGPL licence.

The main features of the 7z format are:

  • Open, modular architecture (which allows any compression, conversion, or encryption method to be used)
  • High compression ratio (depending on which compression method is used)
  • Strong AES-256 encryption
  • Support for large files (up to approximately 16 exabytes)
  • Unicode file names
  • Compression of archive headers
  • allows compact archives: As with e.g. RAR and TGZ, one compressed data stream contains several files, as opposed to e.g. ZIP, where the archive file contains a separate compressed data stream for each archived file.

The format's open architecture allows additional compression methods to be added to the standard. The following are defined in the current version:

  • LZMA - Improved and optimized version of LZ77 algorithm, using Markov chains/entropy coding and Patricia tries.
  • PPMD - Dmitry Shkarin's 2002 PPMdH (PPMII/cPPMII) with small changes: PPMII is an improved version of the 1984 PPM compression algorithm (prediction by partial matching).
  • BCJ - Converter for 32-bit x86 executables, see LZMA. Compresses target addresses of near jumps and calls.
  • BCJ2 - Converter for 32-bit x86 executables, see LZMA. Jump, call and conditional jump targets addresses are compressed separately.
  • Bzip2 - Standard Burrows-Wheeler transform algorithm. Bzip2 uses (faster) Huffman coding, while Bzip is using (stronger) entropy coding.
  • DEFLATE - Standard LZ77-based algorithm

7z also supports encryption with the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key. The key is generated from a user-supplied passphrase using an algorithm based on the SHA-256 hash algorithm (with a large number of iterations, to make a brute-force search for the passphrase more difficult).

The MIME type of 7z is application/x-7z-compressed.

Other compressors which use PPMII: RAR

Compressors which encode branch targets to improve program file compression ratio:

  • UPX - for x86 16- and 32-bit binaries.
  • 7-Zip - for x86 32-bit binaries, ARM, ARMThumb, PPC and IA64.
  • RAR - for x86 32-bit and for IA64 Itanium. Also has preprocessors for true color data, audio data and tables.


See also