zipper

README

zipper

⚡ Quick Download (Nightly Builds)

Platform	Format	Link
Windows	.zip	amd64 / arm64
macOS	.tar.gz	amd64 / arm64
Linux	.tar.gz	amd64 / arm64
FreeBSD	.tar.gz	amd64 / arm64
DragonflyBSD	.tar.gz	amd64
OpenBSD	.tar.gz	amd64 / arm64
NetBSD	.tar.gz	amd64 / arm64
Illumos (experimental)	.tar.gz	amd64
Solaris (experimental)	.tar.gz	amd64

These builds are automated and represent the current state of the main branch.

A high-fidelity cross-platform console archiver built on top of high-performance pure-Go compression libraries. It is designed to act as a demonstration app for unxed/zip and unxed/tar while providing binary mimicry for seamless integration into legacy scripts.

Key Features

• Highly Concurrent: Parallel compression and extraction out-of-the-box using GOMAXPROCS concurrency limits.
• Strict Metadata Preservation: Saves and restores platform-specific attributes including Extended Attributes (xattrs), POSIX ACLs, NTFS Security Descriptors, UID/GID, owner strings, symlinks, and hardlinks.
• WinZip AES & Central Directory Encryption: Full support for AES-256 encrypted archives and invisible file lists (CDE) without disclosing filenames.
• Solid ZIP-in-ZIP Mode: Transparently wraps uncompressed file tables into a single highly compressed Solid.zip block to maximize compression ratios while preserving metadata.
• Seekable Solid Access: Uses seek index maps (-seek-chunk, -seek-continuous) to jump directly to any block within compressed streams in O(1) time without full decompression.
• Incremental Backups: Synchronizes changes against a .zip_dumpdir manifest, automatically deleting removed files on incremental restore.
• Resilient Extraction: Safe atomic writes, sparse blocks (skipping over zero blocks), and tolerant extraction of partially corrupted archives.
• Mimics anything: Acts as a modern CLI (zipper) but changes its behavior dynamically to match zip, unzip, or tar depending on the name of the executable being invoked (e.g., via symlinks).

Formats coverage / platform specific features

Feature	unxed/tar	unxed/zip
NTFS ACLs (Win)	Get/SetFileSecurityW | PAX MSWINDOWS.raw_sd	Get/SetFileSecurityW | Extra Field 0x4453
Alternative Data Streams (Win)	Find*StreamW | Virtual files (file:stream)	Find*StreamW | Virtual files (file:stream)
High-precision Timestamps (Win/*nix)	unix.Lutimes | PAX float64 UnixNano	unix.Lutimes / Chtimes | Extra Fields 0x000a / 0x5455
Symlinks (Win/*nix)	os.Symlink | TAR Typeflag 2	os.Symlink | Mode flag + File payload
Hardlinks (*nix)	os.Link | TAR Typeflag 1	os.Link | Store method + Extra Field 0x000d
Special Files (Devices/FIFOs) (*nix)	unix.Mknod | TAR Typeflag 3/4/6	unix.Mknod | Extra Field 0x000d
Owner UID/GID (*nix)	os.Lchown | TAR header fields	os.Lchown | Extra Field 0x7875
Owner/Group Names (*nix)	os.Lchown | TAR header fields	os.Lchown | Extra Field 0x7817 (spec)
xattrs / POSIX ACLs (*nix)	Lget/setxattr, Extattr* | PAX SCHILY.xattr	Lget/setxattr, Extattr* | Extra Field 0x7811 (spec)

Use as a Go Library

The core archiver engine is designed as a standalone, reusable Go package located under the ./archive directory. You can import github.com/unxed/zipper/archive into your own Go projects to get high-performance, concurrent, and high-fidelity archiving.

For detailed API specifications, interfaces, and code examples, see the Archive Library Documentation.

Build and Installation

Ensure you have Go (1.25 or newer) installed:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/unxed/f4.git
cd f4/zipper
go build -o zipper .

Activating Mimicry Mode

To make zipper behave like standard system tools, simply create symbolic links or copy the binary under the respective names:

# On Unix-like systems
ln -s zipper tar
ln -s zipper zip
ln -s zipper unzip

# On Windows
copy zipper.exe tar.exe
copy zipper.exe zip.exe
copy zipper.exe unzip.exe

Usage

1. Native CLI Mode (zipper)

• Create a Solid Zstandard ZIP with fast seek index:

  zipper c -solid -seek-chunk 1048576 -m zstd archive.zip path/to/files
  

• Create an encrypted ZIP with hidden file list (CDE):

  zipper c -e -p "secret_password" hidden.zip file.txt
  

• Tolerant incremental extraction:

  zipper x -incremental -tolerant archive.zip
  

2. Mimicry Mode (tar, zip, unzip)

• Emulating Tar:

  ./tar -czf archive.tar.gz file1.txt file2.txt
  ./tar -xzf archive.tar.gz
  

• Emulating Zip:

  ./zip -P "mypass" -0 secure_store.zip raw.dat
  

• Emulating Unzip:

  ./unzip -P "mypass" secure_store.zip -d /tmp/output