NAME

       patool - portable archive file manager

SYNOPSIS

        patool  [global-options]  (list|test|extract|create|diff|search|repack|formats) [command-
       options] <command-arguments>...

DESCRIPTION

       Various archive formats can be created, extracted, tested, listed, searched, repacked  and
       compared  by  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), ACE (.ace), 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), RZIP (.rz), SHN (.shn), TAR (.tar),  XZ
       (.xz),  ZIP  (.zip,  .jar)  and  ZOO  (.zoo) formats.  It relies on helper applications to
       handle those archive formats (for example bzip2 for BZIP2 archives).

       The archive formats TAR, ZIP, BZIP2 and GZIP are supported natively  and  do  not  require
       helper applications to be installed.

EXAMPLES

         patool extract archive.zip otherarchive.rar
         patool --verbose test dist.tar.gz
         patool list package.deb
         patool --verbose create myfiles.zip file1.txt dir/
         patool diff release1.0.tar.xz release2.0.zip
         patool search "def urlopen" python-3.3.tar.gz
         patool repack linux-2.6.33.tar.gz linux-2.6.33.tar.bz2

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       -v, --verbose
              Display  more  info  about  what  patool  does,  and  display  the output of helper
              applications. Can be given multiple times to increase the output even more.

COMMANDS

       The following rules apply to all commands:

       •   Existing files are never overwritten.

       •   The original archive will never be removed.

       •   Files outside the output directory will never  be  created.  This  relies  on  archive
           program  options  to  prevent  unpacking  of  files  with  an  absolute path name (eg.
           --no-absolute-filenames for cpio(1)).

       The following commands are available.

   extract
       patool extract [--outdir directory] <archive>...

       Extract files from given archives. The original archives will never  be  removed  and  are
       left as is.

       --outdir directory
              Extract to the given output directory. Default is to extract to the current working
              directory.

       If the archive contains exactly one file or directory, the archive contents are  extracted
       directly  to  the  output  directory.   Else  the  files  are extracted in a newly created
       subdirectory of the output directory.  The  new  directory  is  named  after  the  archive
       filename without the extension.
       This  prevents  cluttering  the  output  directory  with a lot of files from the extracted
       archive.

       All extracted files are ensured that they are readable by the current user.

   list
       patool list <archive>...

       List files in archives.

   create
       patool create <archive> <file-or-directory>...

       Create an archive from given files. All of the given files to add to the archive  must  be
       readable  by  the  current user.  The format of the archive to create is determined by the
       archive file extension.

   test
       patool test <archive>...

       Test the given archives. If the helper application does not support testing,  the  archive
       contents are listed instead.

   diff
       patool diff <archive1> <archive2>

       Show differences between two archives with the diff(1) program.  The diff options used are
       -urN.

   search
       patool search <pattern> <archive>

       Search in archive contents for given pattern using the grep(1) program.  The grep  options
       used  are  -r;  additional  options  can  be  supplied  with  the GREP_OPTIONS environment
       variable.

   repack
       patool repack <archive> <archive_new>

       Repackage archive to a different format. The target archive format is  determined  by  the
       file extension of archive_new.

   formats
       patool formats

       Show all supported archive formats (ie. which helper applications are available).

HELP OPTION

       Specifying the help option displays help for patool itself, or a command.
       For example:
         patool --help - display help for patool
         patool extract --help - display help for the extract command

SHELL ALIASES

       When running under a Unix shell the following aliases can be defined to save some typing:
         alias pl='patool list'
         alias px='patool extract'
         alias pc='patool create'
         alias pd='patool diff'

AUTHOR

       Bastian Kleineidam <bastian.kleineidam@web.de>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2010-2013 Bastian Kleineidam