Solved Strange archive format (2)

[vince66]

Hello guys !

Please, do you have a list of descriptors (in hexadecimal) related to archive files:

.tar
.tar.gz
.tgz
.zip
.bz2
.tar.bz2

etc.......

I think that opening an archive file with an Hex editors, it should be possible retrive the archive's type by its descriptor.
Identifying the compression algorithm should be more easy find the program that uncompress it.

Thanks very much.

 

[Beastie]

It's available online in many places:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures
https://filesignatures.net/
https://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html
http://file-extension.net/

file(1) is pretty good at what it does. If it's failing to identify the file properly, it usually means something is fishy.

 

[vince66]

it usually means something is fishy.

no, because winrar correctly uncompress it.

Thanks for the links.

 

[SirDice]

no, because winrar correctly uncompress it.

That only means WinRAR can handle fishy files better. That doesn't mean the archive itself is properly made, it just means WinRAR is capable of fixing or ignoring errors.

 

[ShelLuser]

it just means WinRAR is capable of fixing or ignoring errors.

+1 from me.

I've been using RAR / WinRAR since 1996 (or close enough) and trust me when I say that it has some pretty special features included. Amongst which, SirDice already hinted at it, is data recovery. Not merely for new archives (where you can use recovery records and/or separated recover volumes (all based on PAR, which is very impressive)) but also... you guessed it: for regular archives.

If WinRAR is about the only archiver which can open it then I'm convinced that it has something to do with its rather specific data recovery features.

 

[vince66]

If WinRAR is about the only archiver which can open it then I'm convinced that it has something to do with its rather specific data recovery features.

WinRAR is capable of fixing or ignoring errors

Ok guys !

If WinRAR is so performant as you well explained by a technical point of view, I'll use WinRAR.

My goal was avoid the use of a Windows machine ...

I'll have patience.

Thanks very much.

 

[Beastie]

I'll use WinRAR.

My goal was avoid the use of a Windows machine ...

No need for Windows when you can just use Wine (emulators/wine).