The bewildering amount of types of compression used with CP/M.

It is not as bad as it looks. Just as in DOS/Windows, the extension determines the compression type used. But some compression programs only replace one character in the extension, instead of the whole extension. Examples are Crunch (.?Z?) and Squeeze (.?Q?).

The programs can be found at several CP/M oriented sites. I got most of them from Cereal Misc. CP/M Programs and Files.

Sometimes the programs are compressed themselves. So you need a decompression tool to decompress your decompression tool. The worst are the ones who use their own compression type, these are useless unless you find an uncompressed version.

ExtensionAlogarithm typeProgram used
.ARCArchiveCPM: ARC-UTL.LBR
.ARKArchiveCPM: ARC-UTL.LBR, ARK04P.ARK
.LBRGary Novosielski's Library definitionCPM: NULU.COM/NULU152A.LBR
DOS: CFX.ZIP
.?Q?SqueezeCPM: SQ.ARC
DOS: CFX.ZIP
.?Y?CPM: CRLZH20.LBR
DOS: CFX.ZIP
.?Z?CrunchCPM: CRUNCH24.LBR
DOS: UNCR232.ARC

For more on this and lots more:

Other CP/M archives:

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Last updated: 2003-11-07

email: fjkraan@xs4all.nl