Alternatives to bsdtar (libarchive)
Command-line archivers built on libarchive that read and write tar, zip, cpio, ISO and more. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
bsdtar (libarchive)
Command-line archivers built on libarchive that read and write tar, zip, cpio, ISO and more.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as bsdtar (libarchive).
GNU Tar
The GNU command-line tool for creating, extracting, updating and listing tar archives.
GNU Tar is the standard tar tool on most Linux systems and can update and append archives, but it handles only tar, not zip, rar or ISO.
ouch
Command-line tool that compresses and extracts archives without format-specific flags.
ouch is an MIT-licensed command-line tool that picks tar, zip, gzip, xz or zstd from the file name, also running on macOS, but it covers only common formats.
p7zip
Command-line port of 7-Zip's compression tools for POSIX systems.
p7zip brings 7-Zip's compression to Linux and macOS on the command line, writing 7z archives, though its development has slowed.
7-Zip
The small, free archiver that opens practically every archive format and compresses better than ZIP.
7-Zip adds a Windows graphical app and high-ratio 7z compression while unpacking RAR, ISO and many more formats, with console builds on Linux and macOS.
Also worth comparing
These listings name bsdtar (libarchive) as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
dtrx
A command-line tool that extracts many archive formats with one consistent command.
bsdtar reads many formats including zip, rar and ISO with automatic format detection and can also write archives, though its options differ from GNU tar.
ripunzip
A command-line tool that unzips ZIP files in parallel, including while downloading them from a URL.
bsdtar extracts ZIP and many other formats including rar and ISO from one command, but it does not unzip in parallel or while downloading.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
archivemount
A FUSE filesystem that mounts tar, zip and other archives so they can be browsed like folders.
ratarmount
A command-line tool that mounts TAR, ZIP, RAR and compressed archives as a read-only filesystem.
GNU Gzip
The GNU command-line compression program that creates and decompresses .gz files.
XZ Utils
The standard command-line tool for creating and reading .xz files.
Zstandard
Meta's compression tool that hits near-zlib ratios at far higher speed, now used across Linux and modern filesystems.
