🗜️ xfh

xfh is a pure-Python library and command-line tool for recovering files compressed with the Amiga XPK system, including files written transparently through DiskExpander.

It requires Python 3.10 or newer and has no runtime dependencies.

Install

python -m pip install xfh

Help

xfh --help
xfh info --help
xfh verify --help
xfh unpack --help

You can also run the command as python -m xfh.

Use

Inspect a packed file:

xfh info packed-file

Verify that a file decompresses successfully without writing its contents:

xfh verify packed-file

Recover a file:

xfh unpack packed-file recovered-file

For an encrypted stream, xfh prompts securely for its password. In scripts, set XFH_PASSWORD; passwords are deliberately not accepted as command-line arguments because process listings can expose them.

Existing output files are not overwritten unless --force is supplied. Output is limited to 256 MiB by default; use --max-output-size to choose a different byte limit.

For a damaged stream, salvage mode writes the prefix recovered before the first failing chunk. It exits with status 4 when recovery is incomplete:

xfh unpack damaged-file recovered-prefix --salvage --report recovery.json

Keep the original packed file unchanged and validate salvaged output with tools appropriate for its file type.

Python

from pathlib import Path

import xfh

packed = Path("packed-file").read_bytes()
info = xfh.inspect(packed)
plain = xfh.decompress(packed)  # Add password="..." for an encrypted stream.

print(info.codec, len(plain))
Path("recovered-file").write_bytes(plain)

xfh.decompress_file() provides atomic, non-overwriting file output. xfh.Limits controls maximum output size, total chunk count across nested streams, and nesting depth (16 streams by default).

Supported codecs

xfh supports these XPK codec identifiers:

ACCA, ARTM, BLFH, BLZW, BZP2, CBR0, CBR1, CRM2, CRMS, CYB2, DLTA, DUKE, ELZX, ENCO, FAST, FBR2, FEAL, FRHT, FRLE, GZIP, HFMN, HUFF, IDEA, ILZR, IMPL, LHLB, LZBS, LZCB, LZW2, LZW3, LZW4, LZW5, MASH, NONE, NUID, NUKE, PPMQ, PWPK, RAKE, RDCN, RLEN, SASC, SDHC, SHID, SHR3, SHRI, SHSC, SLZ3, SLZX, SMPL, SQSH, TDCS, and ZENO.

CBR1 is an alias for CBR0; FRHT is an alias for RAKE. BLFH's packed and unpacked ECB, OFB, CFB, and CBC modes are decoded. Obsolete ciphers are included solely for recovery and must not be used to protect new data.