erc(1)

ERC(1)

General Commands Manual

ERC(1)

NAME

erc - a universal archive tool

SYNOPSIS

erc [options] [command] name [target]

DESCRIPTION

ERC is a universal command-line archive manager that provides a unified interface for working with various archive formats. It uses patool as the primary backend, with 7z as a fallback when patool is not available.

When extracting, erc decides where to place files:

Single file in archive — extracted to the current directory.
Single directory in archive — renamed to match the archive basename.
Multiple files or directories — extracted into a subdirectory named after the archive.

Use erc basename to see the predicted directory name for an archive.

COMMANDS

a, create, pack, add: Create archive or add files to archive.
x, extract, unpack: Extract files from archive.
l, list: List archive contents.
t, test, check: Test archive integrity.
type: Print archive type.
basename: Print the predicted directory name for the archive.
repack, conv: Convert archive to another format.
formats: List supported archive formats.
b, bench, benchmark: Run CPU benchmark.
diff: Compare two archives (requires patool).
search, grep: Search in archive files (requires patool).

Commands can also be used with a dash prefix: -a, -x, -l, -t, -b.

OPTIONS

-h, --help: Display help.
-V, --version: Show version and exit.
-q, --quiet: Quiet mode.
-f, --force: Force override target.
-C DIR: Extract to specified directory. The directory is created if it does not exist.
--directory DIR, --extract-to DIR, --destination DIR, --outdir DIR: Same as -C. Long options also accept = syntax (e.g. --directory=DIR).
--here, --no-subdir: Extract to current directory (or -C directory) without creating a subdirectory.
-j, --flat, --junk-paths: Extract all files without directory structure (strip paths).
--use-patool: Force use patool as backend.
--use-7z: Force use 7z as backend.

EXAMPLES

# erc a archive.zip file(s)... - pack files to archive.zip
# erc file(s)... zip: - pack file(s) to zip archive
# erc dir - pack directory to dir.zip
# erc [x] archive.zip - unpack archive
# erc -C dir archive.zip - extract directly into dir
# erc --here archive.zip - extract without creating subdirectory
# erc --flat archive.zip - extract all files stripping paths
# erc l archive.zip - list files of the archive
# erc [repack] archive1.zip 7z: - repack to 7z
# erc [repack] archive.zip archive.7z - repack zip to 7z
# erc -f repack archive.zip archive.7z - repack (override target)
# erc basename archive.tar.gz - print predicted directory name
# erc type archive.zip - print archive type

ENVIRONMENT

ERC_BACKEND: Set to patool or 7z to force a specific backend.

BUGS

Please report any bugs to lav@etersoft.ru

EXIT STATUS

erc will return zero on success and non zero on operation failure.