File archiver: Difference between revisions

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~~In [[computing]], a~~ '''file archiver''' is [[utility software]] that combines [[computer file|files]] into a single [[archive file]] {{endash}} or in less common cases, multiple files.

A '''file archiver''' is [[utility software]] that combines [[computer file |files]] into a single [[archive file]] {{endash}} or in less common cases, multiple files. A relatively simple implementation might include the content of each file plus its [[file name |name]]. A more advanced implementation stores additional [[metadata]], such as the [[Timestamping (computing)|timestamps]], [[file attribute]]s and access control information. An archiver might [[lossless data compression |compress]] input file content to reduce the size of the resulting archive.

~~A minimally designed archiver might concatenate~~ the ~~content of files along with file [[file name|name]] and length. A more advanced archiver stores additional [[metadata]], such as~~ the ~~[[Timestamping (computing)|timestamps]], [[file attribute]]s and access control information. An archiver might [[lossless data compression|compress]] input~~ file content to ~~reduce the size of the resulting archive.~~

In addition to creating an archive, the same utility may also support extracting the contained file content to recreate the original files.

~~The process of making an archive file is called ''archiving'' or ''packing''. Reconstructing~~ the original files ~~from an archive is called ''unarchiving'', ''unpacking'' or ''extracting''~~.

==Multics==

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As the [[Unix]] archive tools [[ar (Unix)|ar]], [[tar (file format)|tar]], and [[cpio]] do not provide compression, other tools, such as [[gzip]], [[bzip2]], or [[XZ Utils|xz]], are used to compress an archive file after it is created and to decompress before extracting.

Not only does separating archiving from compressing follow the [[Unix philosophy]] ~~that~~ each tool should provide a single capability; not attempt to accomplish everything with one ~~tool, it~~ has the following advantages:

Not only does separating archiving from compressing follow the [[Unix philosophy]]—that each tool should provide a single capability, not attempt to accomplish everything with one tool—it has the following advantages:

* As compression technology progresses, users may use a different compression tool without having to change how they use the archiver.

* [[Solid compression]] allows the compressor to take advantage of redundancy across the multiple archived files in order to achieve better compression than simply compressing each file individually.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Short description|Utility software for combining files}}
+{{Short description |Utility software for combining files}}
 {{refimprove|date=August 2016}}
-In [[computing]], a '''file archiver''' is [[utility software]] that combines [[computer file|files]] into a single [[archive file]] {{endash}} or in less common cases, multiple files.
+A '''file archiver''' is [[utility software]] that combines [[computer file |files]] into a single [[archive file]] {{endash}} or in less common cases, multiple files. A relatively simple implementation might include the content of each file plus its [[file name |name]]. A more advanced implementation stores additional [[metadata]], such as the [[Timestamping (computing)|timestamps]], [[file attribute]]s and access control information. An archiver might [[lossless data compression |compress]] input file content to reduce the size of the resulting archive.
-A minimally designed archiver might concatenate the content of files along with file [[file name|name]] and length. A more advanced archiver stores additional [[metadata]], such as the [[Timestamping (computing)|timestamps]], [[file attribute]]s and access control information. An archiver might [[lossless data compression|compress]] input file content to reduce the size of the resulting archive.
+In addition to creating an archive, the same utility may also support extracting the contained file content to recreate the original files.
-The process of making an archive file is called ''archiving'' or ''packing''. Reconstructing the original files from an archive is called ''unarchiving'', ''unpacking'' or ''extracting''.
 ==Multics==
@@ Line 13: / Line 11: @@
 As the [[Unix]] archive tools [[ar (Unix)|ar]], [[tar (file format)|tar]], and [[cpio]] do not provide compression, other tools, such as [[gzip]], [[bzip2]], or [[XZ Utils|xz]], are used to compress an archive file after it is created and to decompress before extracting.
-Not only does separating archiving from compressing follow the [[Unix philosophy]] that each tool should provide a single capability; not attempt to accomplish everything with one tool, it has the following advantages:
+Not only does separating archiving from compressing follow the [[Unix philosophy]]—that each tool should provide a single capability, not attempt to accomplish everything with one tool—it has the following advantages:
 * As compression technology progresses, users may use a different compression tool without having to change how they use the archiver.
 * [[Solid compression]] allows the compressor to take advantage of redundancy across the multiple archived files in order to achieve better compression than simply compressing each file individually.

File archiver: Difference between revisions

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