A file explorer and archiver in one window, written in Rust. Browse your disk, step into ZIP, 7z, TAR and RAR archives as if they were folders, and compress with parallel Zstandard and AES-256 behind safe-Rust parsers.
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| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Formats | ZIP with Zip64 (store, Deflate, Zstandard), 7z (Store/LZMA2, solid reading), RAR5 creation (single volume, four levels), ustar TAR, .tar.gz, .tar.xz and .xz |
| Read-only formats | Existing RAR/CBR, including multivolume, enabled by default; never modified, CBR never created |
| Read-only | ZIP containers: .apk .aar .jar .war .ear .epub .cbz .xpi .whl .nupkg .ipa; ISO 9660 images with Rock Ridge and Joliet names |
| Speed | Multi-threaded compression, parallel .zip extraction, sub-millisecond start |
| Safety | #![forbid(unsafe_code)] parsers, bounded header reads, Zip Slip defence |
| Encryption | ZIP AES-256 (WinZip AE-2); 7z AES-256 with optional hidden names. Limits |
| Desktop | arca-gui: a file explorer that opens archives in place. Panes or details view, per-pane filters, preview with syntax highlighting, hex and images, folder peeking, pointer focus, devices with mount/format/label, Strata-style context menus, in-app updates |
| Interfaces | arca command line, arca-gui desktop window, Windows 11 Explorer menu |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Linux |
Grab the file for your platform from the latest release (Windows installer or portable zip, macOS and Linux tarballs), or build it:
cargo build --release # binaries in target/release/Details, checksums and the pure-Rust build are in Installation.
arca-gui starts in the folder you left it in and behaves like any file explorer: places, pinned folders and devices in the sidebar, folders in side-by-side panes or a details table, a preview panel that shows text with syntax highlighting, hex dumps and images. Double-click an archive and it opens in place, with the same panes, filters and preview; Compress on any selection and Extract on any archive, with or without a password, are one right-click away. Read more in The desktop workspace.
arca create photos.zip ~/Pictures/trip/ # format comes from the extension
arca list photos.zip # look inside, extract nothing
arca test photos.zip # verify every CRC, write nothing
arca extract photos.zip -o trip/ # unpackMore in the Quick start and the CLI reference.
Measured on one machine and reproducible with bash bench.sh. The benchmarks give the method, every run and where Arca loses.
|
Use it |
Under the hood |
cargo test --workspace
bash interop.sh # needs zip, unzip, tar and 7-ZipBug reports, benchmarks from your hardware and pull requests are welcome. Read Contributing first, and open an issue for bugs.