Command Line Version User's Guide

7z.exe is the command line version of 7-Zip. 7z.exe uses 7z.dll from the 7-Zip package. 7z.dll is used by the 7-Zip File Manager also.

7za.exe (a = alone) is a standalone version of 7-Zip. 7za.exe supports only 7z, xz, lzma, cab, zip, gzip, bzip2 and tar formats. 7za.exe doesn't use external modules.

Notes from this site

Not part of the 7-Zip manual. Written by this site; examples checked with 7-Zip 26.04.

7z, 7za, 7zz or 7zr: which program do I run?

Program	Where	Formats
`7z.exe`	Windows; needs `7z.dll` from the same package	The formats 7z.dll supports
`7za.exe`	Windows standalone	7z, xz, lzma, cab, zip, gzip, bzip2, tar
`7zz`	Linux, macOS (official console build)	Many formats, but some can only be opened, not created (for example, `-trar` fails with E_NOTIMPL on 7zz 26.04). The exact set depends on the build: run `7zz i`
`7zr.exe`	Windows; described only in the Bundle section of readme.txt, not on this page	readme.txt describes it as a standalone console for the 7z format only

This manual writes 7z in its examples. On Linux and macOS type 7zz instead; everything else is identical.

What is the simplest command to compress or extract?

7zz a archive.7z folder/          # compress a folder
7zz x archive.7z                  # extract here, keeping folders
7zz x archive.7z -oextracted      # extract into ./extracted
7zz e archive.7z                  # extract all files flat, without folders
7zz l archive.7z                  # list contents
7zz t archive.7z                  # test integrity
7zz x proj.tar.gz && 7zz x proj.tar   # .tar.gz is two steps: gzip, then tar
for f in *.7z; do 7zz x "$f" -o"${f%.7z}"; done   # many archives, one folder each

Use x unless you really want every file in one folder: e drops the folder structure, and files with the same name then clash.

Pick a task

The commands are a add, x and e extract, l list, t test, d delete, u update (see Commands). The five switches used most: -o (target folder), -p, -mx (compression level), -x (skip files) and -r (recurse into folders).

Hide file names in a password-protected 7z: -mhe
Split into parts: -v
Check success in a script: exit codes
Quotes, spaces, wildcards and the order of switches: command line syntax