patool is an archive file manager.
Various archive formats can be created, extracted, tested, listed, searched, repacked and compared with patool. The advantage of patool is its simplicity in handling archive files without having to remember a myriad of programs and options.
The archive format is determined by the file(1) program and as a fallback by the archive file extension.
patool supports 7z (.7z, .cb7), ACE (.ace, .cba), ADF (.adf), ALZIP (.alz), APE (.ape), AR (.a), ARC (.arc), ARJ (.arj), BZIP2 (.bz2), CAB (.cab), COMPRESS (.Z), CPIO (.cpio), DEB (.deb), DMS (.dms), FLAC (.flac), GZIP (.gz), ISO (.iso), LRZIP (.lrz), LZH (.lha, .lzh), LZIP (.lz), LZMA (.lzma), LZOP (.lzo), RPM (.rpm), RAR (.rar, .cbr), RZIP (.rz), SHN (.shn), TAR (.tar, .cbt), XZ (.xz), ZIP (.zip, .jar, .cbz), ZOO (.zoo) and ZSTANDARD (.zst) archive formats.
It relies on helper applications to handle the archive formats (for example it uses bzip2 for BZIP2 archives).
The archive formats TAR, ZIP, BZIP2 and GZIP are supported natively and do not require helper applications to be installed.
This is free and open source software.
Website: wummel.github.io/patool
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Bastian Kleineidam
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

Related Software
| Terminal-Based Archive Managers | |
|---|---|
| DAR | Disk ARchive: Backup directory tree and files |
| tar | A file archiver and archive format developed since the early days of Unix |
| zpaqfranz | Deduplicating archiver with encryption and paranoid-level tests |
| patool | Portable archive file manager |
| 7-Zip | File archiver with a high compression ratio |
| tarlz | Massively parallel combined implementation of tar and lzip |
| TUI Archiver | Terminal application to list / manage archives |
| Simple Archiver | Fairly wide range of features |
| tarnation | Simple, extensible tar backup/restore utility |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Alternatives to tar | |
|---|---|
| TUI Archiver | List / manage archives |
| tarlz | Massively parallel combined implementation of tar and lzip |
| tarnation | Simple, extensible tar backup/restore utility |
| patool | Portable archive file manager that focuses on simplicity |
| zpaqfranz | Deduplicating archiver with encryption and paranoid-level tests |
Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |


Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.