Archives (also known as Compressed files), are a single file which works like a folder, containing many other files, which are under compression, which reduces their file size. Archives are a file format, a binary file which ends with an extension telling what type of archive it is. Many different archive formats exist, each with differing compression ratios. Different programs also have different compression rates.
Programs
In order to compress (add to) or decompress (open) an archive, you must have a supporting program.
- 7-zip - The pioneer of the lzma (7z) compression format, the most widely used in the Glest community, this cross-platform program is open source and supports decompressing most archives and can compress to many popular archive formats.
- ARK - A cross platform, open source compression and decompression program which is defaultly bundled with most KDE operating systems, and supports most archive types.
- WinRAR - The RAR format is less commonly used in the Glest community, and it can be opened by 7z, though only WinRAR, a commercial program, can create RAR files.
Formats
| Format name | Extension | Compression rate | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-zip | .7z | High | Medium/Fast |
| Zip | .zip | Low/Medium | Fast |
| Bzip2 | .tar.bz2 | Medium/High | Slow |
| Gzip | .tar.gz | Medium | Slow |
| RAR | .rar | High | Medium/Fast |