GAP archive formats

Formats of Archives on the GAP Sites

.tar.gz

The most used archive format under UNIX, a tar-archive compressed with GNU gzip. For unpacking you need the utility programs tar and gzip. The contents of an archive XXX.tar.gz can be listed with

      gzip -dc XXX.tar.gz | tar tv

and the archive can be unpacked with

      gzip -dc XXX.tar.gz | tar xpv

.tar.bz2

This is the most recommended format, a tar-archive compressed with bzip2, because this is the format with the best compression rate. For unpacking you need the utility programs tar and bzip2. The contents of an archive XXX.tar.bz2 can be listed with

      bzip2 -dc XXX.tar.bz2 | tar tv

and the archive can be unpacked with

      bzip2 -dc XXX.tar.bz2 | tar xpv

.zip

This is a standard archive format which can be unpacked on UNIX systems using the unzip utility. The text files in these archives have UNIX line breaks. The contents of an archive XXX.zip can be listed with

      unzip -l XXX.zip

and the archive can be unpacked with

      unzip XXX.zip

Such archives can also be unpacked on Windows systems using your favourite unzip utility, but Windows users are recommended to use win.zip archives described below to get text files with DOS/Windows line breaks.

-win.zip

This is a standard archive format used with Windows. Use your favourite unzip utility for unpacking such archives. The text files in these archives have DOS/Windows line breaks.

Such archives can also be unpacked on UNIX systems with the unzip utility. But note that you must do it with the command line option unzip -a such that line breaks in text files are changed to UNIX standard (if you forget the option, some files will not work under UNIX). Alternatively, just use .zip archives described above.