Reliability of the 7z format?
I noted that the files available for download are in 7z format. I never use this format myself when compressing files (mostly zip only), so how reliable is this 7z format? Is it thoroughly tested so it doesn't corrupt compressed files and make them unusable?
Comments
*.7Z format are archive, especially uses LZMA or LZMA2 as compression, where ZIP (deflate, zlib, bzip, or gzip) and RAR (their proprietary algorithm) does. All of them have same purpose as archiving files, where differs on design formats, features and supported compressions. This tells you what 7z does support.
I often used it and so far no problem with this, where major drawbacks only 7z haven't recovery record, but LZMA rocks you for true highest compression even slower than others.
7zip is used here because in many cases it can get vastly better compression than Zip or RAR.
I've only run in to a couple of issues myself. First, the experimental beta version on their site defaults to a compression method that older 7z and third party uncompressor programs often don't support. I recommend not to use that version. Use 9.2 instead.
Similarly, the 7zip container format actually supports a HUGE variety of different compression methods internally, and not all decompression clients may support all methods. Generally not a problem if you use the defaults in 9.2.
I have also noticed that 7z, unlike ZIP, incorrectly messes around with file date stamps. It probably thinks it is being fancy trying to adjust for time zones, but your LOTUS.COM should always have a time stamp of 1:23AM. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, anything else is incorrect. This is part of the reason we prefer disk images instead of plain file archives.
Where are the specific examples and/or a better explanation - since I'm rewriting post - you ask?! It's a fair question, I suppose, hehe; but, scrambling for bed, ATM, so, gonna have to skip it!!
Basically, for anyone not wanting to use 7-Zip: the closest thing to it, IMO, is WinRAR - which Admin mentioned in their post, above. It can handle 7-Zip files, just fine, for unpacking & their compression does come somewhat close to that of 7-Zip (& it's got teh Recovery Record option)