This package provides a simple, pure-Python interface for handling various archive file formats. Currently, archive extraction is the only supported action. Supported file formats include:

• Zip formats and equivalents: .zip, .egg, .jar.
• Tar and compressed tar formats: .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tz2.

python-archive is compatible and tested with Python versions 2.5, 2.6, and 3.2.

Using the Archive class:

from archive import Archive

a = Archive('files.tar.gz')
a.extract()

Using the extract convenience function:

from archive import extract
# Extract in current directory.
extract('files.tar.gz')
# Extract in directory 'unpack_dir'.
extract('files.tar.gz', 'unpack_dir')

By default, an archive.UnsafeArchive exception will be raised if any file(s) in the archive would be unpacked outside of the target directory (e.g. the archive contains absolute paths or relative paths that navigate up and out of the target directory). If you can trust the source of your archive files, then it's possible to override this behavior, e.g.:

extract('files.tar.gz', method='insecure')

Passing a file-like object is also supported:

f = open('files.tar.gz', 'rb')
Archive(f).extract()

If a file does not have the correct extension, or is not recognized correctly, you may try explicitly specifying an extension (with leading period):

Archive('files.wrongext', ext='.tar.gz').extract()
# or
extract('files.wrongext', ext='.tar.gz')

• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/patool/ - portable command line archive file manager.
• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/gocept.download/ - zc.buildout recipe for downloading and extracting an archive.