# libarchive/libarchive

Multi-format archive and compression library

Repository: https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libarchive
Homepage: http://www.libarchive.org
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: libarchive, tar, cpio, backup, archiving, posix, zstd, 7zip, zip, gz, bz2, xz, lzma, xar, cab, rar, iso9660
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:31:53+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 83, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5340, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 36, "gap_med": 34.0, "n_releases_24m": 15}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3601, forks 995 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:11.438046+00:00)

## What it is
A portable C library for reading and writing streaming archives in many formats (tar, cpio, zip, 7zip, ISO, xar, cab, rar, etc.) with automatic format detection and compression support (gzip, bzip2, xz, zstd, lzma). It also ships bsdtar, bsdcpio, bsdcat, and bsdunzip command-line tools built on the library.

## Use cases
- read and write tar, zip, and cpio archives from C code
- extract archives with automatic format detection
- create compressed tar.gz or tar.zst backups
- convert archives between formats
- replace system tar, cpio, and unzip tools
- handle streaming archives larger than memory

## When to choose
- you need a single library supporting many archive and compression formats
- you need streaming, zero-copy performance for huge archives
- you need a portable C solution across POSIX and Windows

## When to avoid
- you only need one format and want a lighter dependency
- you need object-oriented or high-level language bindings out of the box
- you need encrypted archive formats with full feature support

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: compression, file-system, cli, developer-tools
- domain: files, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, bsd, cross-platform, cli, c
- tags: archiving, tar, zip, cpio, 7zip, zstd, backup, streaming, format-detection, bsdtar, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- libarchive/libarchive (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.438046+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:33:44.883023+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.438046+00:00, sha f4f6d2a20d88)
  - homepage: http://www.libarchive.org (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:01.202076+00:00, sha 5ca6c5e78322)
  - site_page: http://www.libarchive.org/downloads (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:01.210974+00:00, sha 3d62e179462b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.