Universal archive unpacker library

Question

A lot of antiviruses can unpack most archives, found on users harddrives. They dissect .zip, .rar, .chm, .exe, .msi (and other installers) and a lot lot more. Also they can unpack an executable (get resources from them, unpack packed executable and unpack SFX archives).

For example, the popular old russian antivirus "Drweb" have support for many archive formats:

Dr.Web knows many types of archives. At present they are: ZIP, 7ZIP, ARJ, RAR, LHA, HA, GZIP, TAR, BZIP2, MS CAB, WISE, MSI, ISO, CPIO, RPM, DEB

Is there a library or utility which allows me to unpack most archives?

Is there a library to unpack an executables like it is done by antiviruses?

Answer 1

An utility/library to unpack a lot of archives is 7-Zip

Supported formats:

Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM

Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.

UniExtract also supports the unpacking of executables.

Universal Extractor is a program designed to decompress and extract files from any type of archive or installer, such as ZIP or RAR files, self-extracting EXE files, application installers, etc. It's able to support so many varied file formats by utilizing the many backend utilities listed in the credits at the bottom of the page.

Please note that Universal Extractor is not intended to be a general purpose archiving program. It cannot (and never will) create archives, and therefore cannot fully replace archivers such as 7-Zip or WinRAR. What it will do, however, is allow you to extract files from virtually any type of archive, regardless of source, file format, compression method, etc.

The original motivation behind this project was to create an easy, convenient way to extract files from various types of installation packages without the need to remember arcane command line switches or track down separate utilities to handle the unpacking. Over time, and with the encouragement of its many users and the fine folks over on the MSFN forum, it has evolved into a mature and very capable unarchiving utility that many, including myself, find indispensable.

Answer 2

7zip is good but supports only two dozens of file formats:

Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM

Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.

Universal Unpacker supports more (and it uses good TrID binary signature detector):

.7z, .ace, .arc, .arj, .bin, .cue, .bz2, .tar, .cpio, .deb, .cdi, .b64, .uu, .uue, .xx, .xxe, .yenc, .ntx, .gz, .img, .cab, .1, .lib, .iso, .kgb, kge, .lzh, .lha, .lzma, .lzo, .Z, .tz, .lzx, .mht, .cab, .imf, .chm, .??_, .lit, .hlp .nbh, .nrg, .exe, .dbx, .pea, .rar, .rpm, .sis, .sit, .xz, .uha, UPX, .wim, .msm, .msi, .msp, .msu, .zip, .jar, .zoo

There is PeaZIP open source archiver (LGPL) with support of:

Read (browse, extract, test): 7z, apk, bz, bz2, bzip2, tbz2, tbz, gz, tpz, tar, zip, zipx, z01, smzip, arj, cab, chm, chi, chq, chw, hxs, hxi, hxr, hxq, hxw, lit, cpio, deb, lzh, lha, rar, rpm, z, taz, tz, iso, jar, ear, war, lha, pet, pup, pak, pk3, pk4, slp, [Content], xpi, wim, u3p, lzma86, lzma, udf, xar, dmg, hfs, part1, split, swm, tpz, kmz, xz, txz, vhd, mslz, apm, mbr, fat, ntfs, exe, dll, sys, msi, msp, ods, ots, odm, oth, oxt, odb, odf, odg, otg, odp, otp, odt, ott, gnm, doc, dot, xls, xlt, ppt, pps, pot, docx, dotx, xlsx, xltx, swf, flv, quad, balz, zpaq, paq8f, paq8jd, paq8l, paq8o, lpaq1, lpaq5, lpaq8, ace, arc, wrc, 001, pea, cbz, cbr, cba, cb7, cbt (and more...)