7-Zip for macOS

A native macOS port of 7-Zip with automated build scripts for both Intel and Apple Silicon.

Features

• ✅ Native macOS compilation from official 7-Zip source (v24.09)
• ✅ Universal binary support (Intel x86_64 and Apple Silicon ARM64)
• ✅ Full format support: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, XZ, and more
• ✅ Automated build and installation scripts
• ✅ Comprehensive test suite
• ✅ No dependencies on legacy p7zip

Quick Start

# 1. Download 7-Zip source code
./download-source.sh

# 2. Build for your architecture
./build.sh

# 3. Test the build
./test.sh

# 4. Install system-wide (optional)
sudo ./install.sh

Requirements

• macOS 10.13 or later
• Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install
• curl or wget (for downloading source)

Usage

After building, binaries are available in build/bin/:

# Create a 7z archive
./build/bin/7zz a archive.7z file1.txt file2.txt

# Extract an archive
./build/bin/7zz x archive.7z

# List archive contents
./build/bin/7zz l archive.7z

# Create with maximum compression
./build/bin/7zz a -mx=9 archive.7z folder/

# Create password-protected archive
./build/bin/7zz a -pMyPassword secure.7z sensitive.txt

Architecture Support

The build script automatically detects your Mac's architecture:

• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3): Builds ARM64 native binaries
• Intel Macs: Builds x86_64 native binaries

Installation

Manual Installation

sudo ./install.sh

This installs binaries to /usr/local/bin/.

Homebrew (Coming Soon)

A Homebrew formula will be available for easier installation and updates.

Project Structure

7zip-macos/
├── download-source.sh    # Downloads official 7-Zip source
├── build.sh             # Compiles for macOS
├── install.sh           # Installs to /usr/local/bin
├── test.sh              # Comprehensive test suite
├── source/              # 7-Zip source code (after download)
├── build/               # Compiled binaries
│   └── bin/            # Final executables
└── README.md           # This file

Why This Project?

While p7zip has been the traditional Unix/Linux port of 7-Zip, it's no longer actively maintained. This project builds directly from the official 7-Zip source code, ensuring:

• Latest compression algorithms and improvements
• Better compatibility with Windows 7-Zip archives
• Native macOS optimizations
• Active upstream development

Supported Formats

Compression/Decompression:

• 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM

Decompression Only:

• AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, XAR, Z

Performance

7-Zip typically achieves:

• 2-10% better compression than ZIP
• 30-70% better compression than GZIP
• Multi-threaded compression on multi-core systems

Troubleshooting

Build fails with "clang: command not found"

Install Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

"Source code not found" error

Run the download script first:

./download-source.sh

Permission denied when running scripts

Make scripts executable:

chmod +x *.sh

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

License

This project uses the official 7-Zip source code, which is licensed under:

• GNU LGPL (for most code)
• BSD 3-clause License (for some code)
• unRAR license restriction (for RAR decompression)

See the official 7-Zip license for details.

Credits

• 7-Zip by Igor Pavlov
• Build scripts and macOS integration by this project

Links

• Official 7-Zip Website
• 7-Zip SourceForge
• 7-Zip Documentation