ATOOL(1) General Commands Manual ATOOL(1)
NAME
atool - A script for managing file archives of various types
SYNOPSIS
atool [OPTION]... ARCHIVE [FILE]...
aunpack [OPTION]... ARCHIVE [FILE]...
apack [OPTION]... ARCHIVE [FILE]...
als [OPTION]... ARCHIVE [FILE]...
acat [OPTION]... ARCHIVE [FILE]...
adiff [OPTION]... ARCHIVE ARCHIVE
arepack [OPTION]... OLD-ARCHIVE NEW-ARCHIVE
DESCRIPTION
This manual page document describes the atool commands. These commands
are used for managing file archives of various types, such as tar and
Zip archives. Each command can be executed individually or by giving
the appropriate options to atool (see OPTIONS below).
aunpack extracts files from an archive. Often one wants to extract all
files in an archive to a single subdirectory. However, some archives
contain multiple files in their root directories. The aunpack program
overcomes this problem by first extracting files to a unique (tempo-
rary) directory, and then moving its contents back if possible. This
also prevents local files from being overwritten by mistake.
apack creates archives (or compresses files). If no file arguments are
specified, filenames to add are read from standard in.
als lists files in an archive.
acat extracts files in an archive to standard out.
adiff generates a diff between two archives using diff(1).
arepack repacks archives to a different format. It does this by first
extracting all files of the old archive into a temporary directory,
then packing all files extracted to that directory to the new archive.
Use the --each (-e) option in combination with --format (-F) to repack
multiple archives using a single invocation of atool. Note that arepack
will not remove the old archive.
Unless the --format (-F) option is provided, the archive format is de-
termined by the archive file extension. I.e. an extension ".tar.gz" or
".tgz" means tar+gzip format. Note that the extensions are checked in
the order listed in the section ARCHIVE TYPES below, which is why a
file with extension ".tar.gz" is considered to a be tar+gzip archive,
not a gzip compressed file.
OPTIONS
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long op-
tions starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included
below.
-l, --list
List files in archive. This option is automatically assumed
when als is executed.
-x, --extract
Extract files from archive. This option is automatically as-
sumed when aunpack is executed.
-X, --extract-to=PATH
Extract files from archive to the specified directory. When un-
packing compressed files, PATH may refer to either a filename or
an existing directory.
-a, --add
Create archive. This option is automatically assumed when apack
is executed.
-c, --cat
Extract a file from archive to standard out (displaying it on
screen). This option is automatically assumed when acat is exe-
cuted.
-d, --diff
Extract two archives and use diff(1) to generate differencies
between them. This option is automatically assumed when adiff
is executed.
-e, --each
For each argument, execute the specified command. This can be
used to quickly extract, list or create multiple archives (see
EXAMPLES below). This option can not be used with the cat com-
mand.
-F, --format=EXTENSION
Specify archive format manually (see ARCHIVE TYPES below).
-S, --simulate
Run atool in simulation mode. No changes to the filesystem (i.e.
writes) will be made, and all commands that would be executed
are displayed instead. This option can't be combined with --ex-
plain (since it implies that already).
Note that it is not guaranteed that the commands printed in sim-
ulation mode will be the same as those executed in non- simula-
tion mode. This is because some operations depend on what files
archives contain, and atool can at this time only determine that
by extracting archives.
-E, --explain
Display commands executed by atool. This option can't be com-
bined with --simulate.
-p, --page
Run output through a pager, usually pager unless the environment
variable PAGER is set.
-f, --force
When extracting from files, allow overwriting of local files.
When creating an archive, allow the archive file to be overwrit-
ten if it already exists. Note that it is possible to add files
to existing RAR and Zip archives (this is not possible for many
other formats).
-D, --subdir
When extracting archives, always create a new directory for the
archive even if the archive only contains one file in its root
directory.
-0, --null
If no file arguments are specified when creating or adding files
to archives, the list of files will be read from standard in.
Normally these filenames are separated by newline, but with this
option they are separated by null-bytes. This is useful with the
GNU find -print0 option.
-q, --quiet
Decrease verbosity level by one. This is subtracted from the de-
fault verbosity level, or the level specified with --verbosity.
This option may be specified more than once to make atool even
less verbose.
-v, --verbose
Increase verbosity level by one. This is added to the default
verbosity level, or the level specified with --verbosity. This
option may be specified more than once to make atool even more
verbose.
-V, --verbosity=LEVEL
Specify verbosity level. The default level is 1, which means
"normal verbosity" - e.g. when creating and extracting from ar-
chives, files will be listed.
--config=FILE
Load configuration from the specified file. When using this op-
tion, the system-wide and user-wide configuration files will not
be loaded. If the specified file does not exist or can not be
read, atool will terminate with an error message.
-o, --option=KEY=VALUE
Override a configuration option. These are applied after reading
the configuration files.
You can specify this multiple times to override different op-
tions.
-O, --format-option=OPTION
Send additional options to the archiver command. This can be
useful when specifying compression options for some archives,
e.g.
apack -F7z -O-mx=9 archive.7z dir
You can specify this multiple times add different options.
--save-outdir=FILE
When extracting files, save the name of the directory which the
archive was extracted to to the specified file. If the command
was not `extract', or the archive was not extracted to a new di-
rectory, then nothing will be written to the specified file. If
multiple archives were specified (with -e), then only the last
directory that files were extracted to will be written to FILE.
This option is used internally (see EXAMPLES below).
--help Show summary of options.
--version
Output version information and exit.
ARCHIVE TYPES
Unless the -f (--format) option is provided, the archive format is de-
termined by the archive file extension. I.e. an extension ".tar.gz" or
".tgz" means tar+gzip format. Note that the extensions are checked in
the other listed above, which is why a file with extension ".tar.gz" is
considered to a tar+gzip archive, not a gzip archive.
The diff command is supported whenever the extract command is sup-
ported.
The supported archive types are:
tar+gzip (.tar.gz, .tgz)
All commands are supported.
tar+bzip (.tar.bz, .tbz)
All commands are supported.
tar+bzip2 (.tar.bz2, .tbz2)
All commands are supported.
tar+compress (.tar.Z, .tZ)
All commands are supported.
tar+lzop (.tar.lzo, .tzo)
All commands are supported.
tar+lzip (.tar.lz, .tlz)
All commands are supported.
tar+xz (.tar.xz, .txz)
All commands are supported.
tar+7z (.tar.7z, .t7z)
All commands are supported.
tar (.tar)
All commands are supported.
zip (.zip)
All commands are supported.
jar (.jar, .war)
List, extract, and add commands are supported. Cat is supported
if use_jar_program is disabled.
rar (.rar)
All commands are supported.
lha (.lha, .lzh)
All commands are supported.
7z (.7z)
Extract, list and add commands are supported.
alzip (.alz)
Extract command is supported.
ace (.ace)
Extract and list commands are supported.
ar (.a)
All commands are supported.
arj (.arj)
List, extract and add commands are supported.
arc (.arc)
All command are supported. (Note that arc outputs an extra new-
line when the cat command is used.)
rpm (.rpm)
Extract and list commands are supported.
deb (.deb)
Extract and list commands are supported.
cab (.cab)
Cat, extract, and list commands are supported.
gzip (.gz)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
bzip (.bz)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
bzip2 (.bz2)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
compress (.Z)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
lzma (.lzma)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
lzop (.lzo)
Extract and add commands are supported. The cat command is not
supported because lzop does not want to extract files to stan-
dard out unless the -f flag is given.
lzip (.lz)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
xz (.xz)
Cat, extract, and add commands are supported.
rzip (.rz)
Extract and add commands are supported.
lrzip (.lrz)
Extract and add commands are supported.
7zip (.7z)
All commands are supported. (Note that 7z refuses to write ex-
tracted files to standard out if standard out is a terminal. Use
-p or pipe the output of atool/acat to a pager when reading in a
terminal.)
cpio (.cpio)
List, extract and add commands are supported.
CONFIGURATION
Since version 0.8.0, atool can read custom configuration files. First,
hardcoded defaults in the atool program file are evaluated. Then sys-
tem-wide configuration values are loaded from /etc/atool.conf if that
file exists. Finally, per-user configuration values are loaded from
.atoolrc in the current user's home directory.
The format of the configuration files is simple:
variable value
Here variable is a variable listed below, and value is the value to as-
sociate the variable with. variable and value should be separated with
at least one whitespace (space, tab etc). Empty lines and lines begin-
ning with # are discarded.
A value of `1' means that the option is enabled, and `0' that it is
disabled. Strings should not be quoted, as they start at the first non-
whitespace character and end at the end of the line.
The options are:
use_tar_bzip2_option (default: 1)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the --bzip2 op-
tion for filtering bzip2'ed files through bzip2. Versions 1.13.6
or later of GNU tar support --bzip2. Therefore, if you use GNU
tar earlier than 1.13.6, you will need to disable this option.
This used to be use_tar_j_option but using --bzip2 is more por-
table.
use_tar_lzip_option (default: 0)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the --lzip option
for filtering lzip'ed files through lzip. Versions 1.23 or later
of GNU tar support --lzip. Therefore, if you use GNU tar earlier
than 1.23, you will need to disable this option.
use_tar_z_option (default: 1)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the -z option for
filtering gzipped files through gzip. You will need to disable
this and use_tar_j_option if you don't use GNU tar.
Disabling these two options doesn't mean that atool can't ex-
tract bzip2/gzip files. If disabled, atool use a pipe to send
output from bzip2/gzip to tar instead.
If possible, these options should be enabled since error manage-
ment is better when filtering is done by tar.
use_tar_lzma_option (default: 1)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the --lzma option
for filtering lzma compressed files through lzma. Versions 1.20
or later of GNU tar support --lzma.
use_tar_lzop_option (default: 0)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the --lzop option
for filtering lzop compressed files through lzop. Versions 1.21
or later of GNU tar support --lzop.
use_tar_xz_option (default: 0)
Enable this if you use GNU tar and it supports the --xz option
for filtering xz compressed files through xz. Versions 1.22 or
later of GNU tar support --xz.
use_gzip_for_z (default: 1)
Enable this if you want to use gzip instead of uncompress when
decompressing compress'ed files (`.Z' files).
use_rar_for_unpack (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to always use rar instead of unrar when
possible. This makes atool use the rar command (path_rar) even
when listing and extracting RAR files.
use_arc_for_unpack (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to always use arc instead of nomarch
when possible. This makes atool use the arc command (path_arc)
even when listing and extracting ARC files.
use_arj_for_unpack (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to always use arj instead of unarj when
possible. This makes atool use the arj command (path_arj) even
when listing and extracting ARJ files.
use_find_cpio_print0 (default: 1)
Enable this if find supports the -print0 option and cpio sup-
ports the -0 option. Without it, it is impossible/harder to make
cpio archives of files with newline characters in their names.
extract_deb_control (default: 1)
Debian .deb package files contain control information in a DE-
BIAN directory, especially the package's "control" file. Enable
this if you want the control information to be exctracted during
extraction in addition to the normal files.
strip_unknown_ext (default: 1)
Certain types of files are actually archives, but their exten-
sions doesn't tell so. Examples are Open Office documents (Zip
files) and Gnumeric documents (gzip'ed files). Since the exten-
sions of those filenames are unknown to atool, they would not be
stripped with this option set to 0. The output file in that case
would be something like Unpack-XYZW. Setting this option to 1
will cause the extension to be stripped instead.
use_pbzip2 (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to use pbzip2 rather than bzip2. Please
not that if use_tar_bzip2_option is enabled, then bzip2 will be
used by tar regardless of the use_pbzip2 option. So if you want
tar to use pbzip2 rather than bzip2, set use_pbzip2 to 1 and
use_tar_bzip2_option to 0.
use_lbzip2 (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to use lbzip2 rather than bzip2. Please
not that if use_tar_bzip2_option is enabled, then bzip2 will be
used by tar regardless of the use_lbzip2 option. So if you want
tar to use lbzip2 rather than bzip2, set use_lbzip2 to 1 and
use_tar_bzip2_option to 0.
use_pigz (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to use pigz rather than gzip. Please
not that if use_tar_z_option is enabled, then gzip will be used
by tar regardless of the use_pigz option. So if you want tar to
use pigz rather than gzip, set use_pigz to 1 and use_tar_z_op-
tion to 0.
use_plzip (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to use plzip rather than lzip. Please
not that if use_tar_lzip_option is enabled, then lzip will be
used by tar regardless of the use_plzip option. So if you want
tar to use plzip rather than lzip, set use_plzip to 1 and
use_tar_lzip_option to 0.
use_jar (default: 0)
Enable this if you want to use jar for managing jar archives. If
you disable this option, zip will be used (which should work
just as well, and probably be faster too).
This option is disabled by default since extracting files to
standard out (`cat') is not supported by jar.
use_file (default: 1)
Enable this if you want atool to identify file types using
file(1) for those files with an unrecognized extension (or none
at all).
use_file_always (default: 0)
Enable this if you want atool to always identify archives using
file(1), regardless of the file extension. Please note that this
currently has some drawbacks, such as not being able to identify
all archive types (especially tar archives compressed with 7zip,
lzop, szip etc).
tmpdir_name (default: Unpack-%04d)
atool extracts to a temporary directory created in the current
directory so that no files are overwritten. This variable con-
trols what name that temporary directory should have.
The `%d' string in this variable will be replaced with a random
number between 0 and 9999. It is possible change the format of
this number by using something else than `%d' - see printf(3).
tmpfile_name (default: Pack-%04d)
When using pbzip2, and creating archives, a temporary file need
to be created. This option controls the name of that file. See
tmpdir_name for further details on the format.
path_pager (default: pager)
path_jar (default: jar)
path_tar (default: tar)
path_zip (default: zip)
path_unzip (default: unzip)
path_gzip (default: gzip)
path_bzip (default: bzip)
path_bzip2 (default: bzip2)
path_pbzip2 (default: pbzip2)
path_compress (default: compress)
path_lzma (default: lzma)
path_lzop (default: lzop)
path_lzip (default: lzip)
path_rar (default: rar)
path_unrar (default: unrar)
path_lbzip2 (default: lbzip2)
path_pigz (default: pigz)
path_cabextract (default: cabextract)
path_7z (default: 7z)
path_unalz (default: unalz)
path_lha (default: lha)
path_unace (default: unace)
path_ar (default: ar)
path_arj (default: arj)
path_unarj (default: unarj)
path_arc (default: arc)
path_nomarch (default: nomarch)
path_rpm (default: rpm)
path_rpm2cpio (default: rpm2cpio)
path_dpkg_deb (default: dpkg-deb)
path_cpio (default: cpio)
path_file (default: file)
path_find (default: find)
path_xargs (default: xargs)
path_cat (default: cat)
path_diff (default: diff)
These are all paths to the corresponding programs. It is usually
best to leave them as is, because that way their locations can
be looked up from the PATH variable.
args_diff (default: -ru)
This variable specifies command line arguments to pass to the
diff command (as specified by path_diff) when using adiff. Space
characters separate arguments in this string.
path_syscfg (default: /etc/atool.conf)
(This variable can only be set in the atool program file.) This
variable specifies the directory where the system-wide configu-
ration file is located.
path_usercfg (default: .atoolrc)
(This variable can only be set in the atool program file and
system-wide configuration file.) This variable specifies where
the user configuration file is located. Note that if this file-
name is relative (i.e. doesn't being with `/'), it will be rela-
tive to the current user's home directory (as determined by the
HOME environment variable).
default_verbosity (default: 1)
This is the default verbosity of atool. By using -q and -v op-
tions, the verbosity level can be raised and lowered. Level 1
means "normal verbosity" - e.g. when creating and extracting
from archives, files will be listed.
show_extracted (default: 1)
If this is set to 1, the aunpack command will always show what
file or directory that was extracted. Otherwise that will only
be printed if the archive was extracted to an unexpected loca-
tion (as a result of local files already existing or the archive
having multiple files in its root directory).
This can be quite useful in combinatiaon with `default_verbosity
0'. Note that this option will have no effect when the -X op-
tion is used with aunpack, and it has no effect on compressed
files.
keep_compressed (default: 1)
When compressing a file with gzip or bzip2, the original (uncom-
pressed) file is usually deleted once it has been compressed.
I.e. if you compress a file "test" you will end up with only one
file, "test.gz". With this option set to 1, you will make atool
keep the original file as well. The original behaviour is
achieved by setting this option to 0.
This option also has an equivalent effect on uncompressing com-
pressed files. When set to 1, the original (compressed) file
will be kept. Otherwise it will be deleted.
Note however that this option has no effect when packing up a
compressed file with the -X option (for specifying an output di-
rectory or file). In that case the original file is always kept.
decompress_to_cwd (default: 1)
When decompressing a file with commands such as gzip or bzip2,
the decompressed file is usually placed in the same directory as
the compressed file. With this option set to 1, the decompressed
file is instead placed in the current working directory.
Note that this option has no effect when -X is used.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
PAGER The default pager to use when the -p/--page option is specified.
EXAMPLES
To extract all files from archive `foobar.tar.gz' to a subdirectory (or
the current directory if it only contains one file):
aunpack foobar.tar.gz
To extract all files from all `.tar.gz' archives in the current direc-
tory:
aunpack -e *.tar.gz
To create a zip archive of two files `foo' and `bar':
apack myarchive.zip foo bar
To display the file `baz' in the archive `myarchive.zip' through a
pager:
acat -p myarchive.zip baz
To list contents of the rar archive `stuff.rar':
als stuff.rar
To create three archives, `dir1.tar.gz', `dir2.tar.gz' and
`dir3.tar.gz', so that the first one contains all files in dir1, the
second all in dir2 and the third all dir3:
apack -e -F .tar.gz dir1 dir2 dir3
To show all differences between version 2.4.17 and 2.4.18 of the ker-
nel:
adiff linux-2.4.17.tar.gz linux-2.4.18.tar.gz
To repack all .tar.gz archives in the current directory to .tar.7z (the
old archive will be kept untouched):
arepack -F.tar.7z -e *.tar.gz
Here's a shell function that will make the aunpack command change into
the directory where files were extracted:
aunpack () {
TMP=`mktemp /tmp/aunpack.XXXXXXXXXX`
atool -x --save-outdir=$TMP "$@"
DIR="`cat $TMP`"
[ "$DIR" != "" -a -d "$DIR" ] && cd "$DIR"
rm $TMP
}
If you don't have the mktemp program, you can replace the second line
with (note however that this is not entirely safe)
TMP="/tmp/atool_outdir.$$"
KNOWN BUGS
Trying to extract gzip and other compressed files without the .gz (or
.bz2 etc) extension won't work:
aunpack: foo: format not known, identifying using file
aunpack: foo: format is `gzip'
gzip: foo: unknown suffix -- ignored
This last error above is generated by gzip -d foo.
If you find a bug not listed here, please report it to <@PACKAGE_BUGRE-
PORT@>.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <oskar@osk.mine.nu>.
AUTHOR
The author of atool and this manual page is Oskar Liljeblad <os-
kar@osk.mine.nu>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
Oskar Liljeblad
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
atool August 8, 2009 ATOOL(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Fri Jan 24 06:22:34 CET 2025.