Extract Any Archive in Linux Using “e” Program
Posted by Admin on October 8th, 2006
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“e” Program Requirements
e is written in Ruby so you need to install this.
e uses the linux tool file to determine what kind of archive it is dealing with.
Installing prerequisites
Debian
#apt-get install ruby file gzip bzip2 tar p7zip \
unzip unrar lzop rzip rpm binutils lha arj cabextract unace ppmd
One more important program is lzma this is available in debian unstable packages so you need to make sure you have unstable souce list in your /etc/apt/sources.list
#apt-get install lzma
Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install ruby file gzip bzip2 tar p7zip \
unzip unrar lzop rzip rpm binutils lha arj cabextract unace ppmd
If you are using Ubuntu dapper you need to install lzma from source download from here and compile
Installing e Program
Download e program from here
copy e program into your /usr/local/bin directory
make it executable using chmod +x /usr/local/bin/e.
Using e Program with Examples
Now we will see some examples how e program
Extract a zip file
e file-name.zip
Extract a rar file
e file-name.rar
Extract several archives, one after another
e a.tar.gz b.tar.bz2 c.cab d.deb e.rpm
Extract every file from the current directory
e *
If possible, e identifies the file format by the content and not by the extension, so for most filetypes e can extract it no matter how you name it. It supports rar, zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2, cab, ace, 7zip, dep, rpm, lha, lzop, rzip, and some more; it is very easy to extend it to support other compression utilities.


October 11th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Use atool http://www.nongnu.org/atool/
Pack, unpack any archives. Written in bash, so you dont need additional staff to install.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:02 am
Please correct the download site for the e programm to: http://martin.ankerl.com/files/e.
August 29th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
The correct link is to http://martin.ankerl.com/files/e without the .