archae 2026.3

Archae explodes archives.

Archae

Archae explodes archives.

Why

Every once and a while, I run into an issue: multiple layers of archives. The reasons vary, but examples would include:

• Searching for something in a ZIP of folders that contained a ZIP with a CD image in it
• Running a malware scan and finding an obscure archive format was missed and not even flagged.
• Meanwhile, I want to make sure I don't fill my disk, especially if an archive bomb (more commonly known as a ZIP bomb) has been jammed in somewhere. They're only funny the first time. :D

Features

• Uses 7z/peazip/unar (not 7za/7zr) to try to extract archives
• No substantial limit on the number of archive layers
• Identifies file types via libmagic
• Detects duplicate archives
• Basic archive bomb protections
  • MAX_ARCHIVE_SIZE_BYTES - ensures the uncompressed size of an archive is limited
  • MAX_TOTAL_SIZE_BYTES - ensures the total extracted footprint isn't above a certain size
  • MIN_ARCHIVE_RATIO - ensures very-high-compression-ratio archives are stopped
  • MIN_DISK_FREE_SPACE - minimum free space at the extraction location
  • MAX_DEPTH - allow setting a maximum archive depth to traverse
  • DELETE_ARCHIVES_AFTER_EXTRACTION - delete pure archive types after deletion

Installation

Archae is available on PyPI. Install with uv or your package manager of choice:

uv tool install archae

Documentation

Check out the Archae documentation for the User's Guide and CLI Reference.

Usage

Configuration values are supplied one of four ways, and any item lower in this list will overwrite a prior one:

• Default values are stored in the app
• A TOML file at ~/.config/archae/ will be created on first run and can override those values (ex. MIN_ARCHIVE_RATIO = 0.005)
• Env vars starts starting with "ARCHAE_" are parsed (ex. ARCHAE_MIN_ARCHIVE_RATIO=0.005)
• Values can be passed in as flags (ex. --min_archive_ratio=0.005)

Running archae --help or python -m archae --help shows a list of all of the available options and arguments:

archae --help

 Usage: archae [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

 Archae explodes archives.

╭─ Options ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ --version  -v  Show the version and exit.                                            │
│ --help     -h  Show this message and exit.                                           │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Commands ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ extract         Extract and analyze an archive.                                      │
│ listopts        List all available configuration options.                            │
│ status          Show archae status and available tools.                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

TODOs

• More archive bomb protections
  • delete_archives_as_exploded - remove archive files to reduce duplication (boolean)
• Improve archive type detection
• Separate between extractable and non-extractable archive types
• Detect password-protected archives
• Allow supplying archive passwords by hash
• Add custom magic to detect obscure archive formats