.7z

Full .7z Installation / Source Compiling Guide

We develop and show the installation and usage of .7z!

thinkmelt@protonmail.com

Feb 21, 2026 • 7 min read

Installing the 7-Zip Command-Line Tool (.7z Compressor) on Linux

The 7-Zip tool (invoked via the 7z command) is the primary utility for creating, extracting, and managing archives in the .7z format (and many others, including ZIP, TAR, RAR, etc.). It provides high compression ratios, strong encryption, and robust integrity checking via CRC-32.

7z does NOT include file repair, you need the new TOA, DAR, or PAR2 file formats for that.

As of February 2026 (7-Zip version 26.00), Linux support is excellent through three main methods:

Distribution package managers (recommended for ease of updates and integration).
Official pre-built binaries (for the absolute latest version with minimal setup).
Compilation from source (for custom builds or specific optimizations).

1. Installation via Package Managers (Recommended for Most Users)

These methods integrate seamlessly with your system’s update process and enable native support in file managers (Nautilus, Dolphin, etc.).

Debian-based Distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, etc.)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install p7zip-full p7zip-rar

p7zip-full provides the complete toolset (7z, 7za, 7zr).
p7zip-rar adds RAR support (non-free codec).

Verification:

7z i

It will produce some detailed information on all the codecs, and algorithm options it supports.

┌─[c@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $7z i

7-Zip 25.01 (x64) : Copyright (c) 1999-2025 Igor Pavlov : 2025-08-03
64-bit locale=en_US.UTF-8 Threads:16 OPEN_MAX:1024, ASM


Libs:
0 : 25.01 : /usr/lib/7zip/7z.so

Formats:
0 C...F..........c.a.m+.. w...0  7z       7z            7 z BC AF ' 1C
0  ......................  APFS     apfs img      offset=32 N X S B 00
0  ......................  APM      apm           E R
0  ......................  Ar       ar a deb udeb lib ! < a r c h > 0A
0  ......................  Arj      arj           ` EA
0  K.....O.....X.........  Base64   b64
0  ......O...............  COFF     obj
0  ...F..................  Cab      cab           M S C F 00 00 00 00
0  ......................  Chm      chm chi chq chw I T S F 03 00 00 00 ` 00 00 00
0  ......................  Compound msi msp doc xls ppt D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
0  ....M.................  Cpio     cpio          0 7 0 7 0  ||  C7 q  ||  q C7
0  ......................  CramFS   cramfs        offset=16 C o m p r e s s e d 20 R O M F S
0  .....G..B.............  Dmg      dmg           k o l y 00 00 00 04 00 00 02 00
0  .........E............  ELF      elf            E L F
0  ......................  Ext      ext ext2 ext3 ext4 img offset=1080 S EF
0  ......................  FAT      fat img       offset=510 U AA
0  ......................  FLV      flv           F L V 01
0  ......................  GPT      gpt mbr       offset=512 E F I 20 P A R T 00 00 01 00
0  ....M.................  HFS      hfs hfsx      offset=1024 B D  ||  H + 00 04  ||  H X 00 05
0  ...F..................  Hxs      hxs hxi hxr hxq hxw lit I T O L I T L S 01 00 00 00 ( 00 00 00
0  ......O...............  IHex     ihex
0  ......................  Iso      iso img       offset=32769 C D 0 0 1
0  ......................  LP       lpimg img     offset=4096 g D l a 4 00 00 00
0  ......................  Lzh      lzh lha       offset=2 - l h
0  .......P..............  MBR      mbr
0  ....M....E............  MachO    macho         CE FA ED FE  ||  CF FA ED FE  ||  FE ED FA CE  ||  FE ED FA CF
0  ......................  MsLZ     mslz          S Z D D 88 F0 ' 3 A
0  ....M.................  Mub      mub           CA FE BA BE 00 00 00  ||  B9 FA F1 0E
0  ......................  NTFS     ntfs img      offset=3 N T F S 20 20 20 20 00
0  ...F.G................  Nsis     nsis          offset=4 EF BE AD DE N u l l s o f t I n s t
0  .........E............  PE       exe dll sys   M Z
0  ......................  Ppmd     pmd           8F AF AC 84
0  ......................  QCOW     qcow qcow2 qcow2c Q F I FB 00 00 00
0  ...F..................  Rar      rar r00       R a r ! 1A 07 00
0  ...F..................  Rar5     rar r00       R a r ! 1A 07 01 00
0  ......................  Rpm      rpm           ED AB EE DB
0  K.....................  SWF      swf           F W S
0  ....M.................  SWFc     swf (~.swf)   C W S  ||  Z W S
0  ......................  Sparse   simg img      : FF & ED 01 00
0  ......................  Split    001
0  ....M.................  SquashFS squashfs      h s q s  ||  s q s h  ||  s h s q  ||  q s h s
0  .........E............  TE       te            V Z
0  ...FM.................  UEFIc    scap          BD 86 f ; v 0D 0 @ B7 0E B5 Q 9E / C5 A0  ||  8B A6 < J # w FB H 80 = W 8C C1 FE C4 M  ||  B9 82 91 S B5AB 91 C B6 9A E3 A9 C F7 / CC
0  ...FM.................  UEFIf    uefif         offset=16 D9 T 93 z h 04 J D 81 CE 0B F6 17 D8 90 DF  ||  x E5 8C 8C = 8A 1C O 99 5 89 a 85 C3 - D3
0  ....M.O...............  Udf      udf iso img   offset=32768 00 B E A 0 1 01 00  ||  01 C D 0 0 1
0  ......................  VDI      vdi           offset=64  10 DA BE
0  .....G................  VHD      vhd           c o n e c t i x 00 00
0  ......................  VHDX     vhdx avhdx    v h d x f i l e
0  ......................  VMDK     vmdk          K D M V
0  ......................  Xar      xar pkg xip   x a r ! 00
0  ......................  Z        z taz (.tar)  1F 9D
0 CK.....................  bzip2    bz2 bzip2 tbz2 (.tar) tbz (.tar) B Z h
0 CK.................m+.. .u..1  gzip     gz gzip tgz (.tar) tpz (.tar) apk (.tar) 1F 8B 08
0  K.....O...............  lzma     lzma
0  K.....................  lzma86   lzma86
0 C......O...LH......m+.. wu.n1  tar      tar ova       offset=257 u s t a r
0 C.SN.......LH..c.a.m+.. w...0  wim      wim swm esd ppkg M S W I M 00 00 00
0 CK.....................  xz       xz txz (.tar) FD 7 z X Z 00
0 C...FMG........c.a.m+.. wud.0  zip      zip z01 zipx jar xpi odt ods docx xlsx epub ipa apk appx P K 03 04  ||  P K 05 06  ||  P K 06 06  ||  P K 07 08 P K  ||  P K 0 0 P K
0  K.....................  zstd     zst tzst (.tar) ( B5 / FD
CK.....O.....XC........  Hash     sha256 sha512 sha384 sha224 sha512-224 sha512-256 sha3-224 sha3-256 sha3-384 sha3-512 sha1 sha2 sha3 sha md5 blake2s blake2b blake2sp xxh64 crc32 crc64 cksum asc

Codecs:
0 4ED   303011B BCJ2
0  EDF  3030103 BCJ
0  EDF  3030205 PPC
0  EDF  3030401 IA64
0  EDF  3030501 ARM
0  EDF  3030701 ARMT
0  EDF  3030805 SPARC
0  EDF        A ARM64
0  EDF        B RISCV
0  EDF    20302 Swap2
0  EDF    20304 Swap4
0  ED     40202 BZip2
0  ED         0 Copy
0  ED     40109 Deflate64
0  ED     40108 Deflate
0  EDF        3 Delta
0  ED        21 LZMA2
0  ED     30101 LZMA
0  ED     30401 PPMD
0  EDF  6F10701 7zAES
0  EDF  6F00181 AES256CBC

Hashers:
4        1 CRC32
0    4        1 CRC32
0   16      208 MD5
0   20      201 SHA1
0   32        A SHA256
0   32      231 SHA3-256
0   48      222 SHA384
0   64      223 SHA512
0    8      211 XXH64
0    8        4 CRC64
0   32      202 BLAKE2sp

Red Hat-based Distributions (Fedora, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream)

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install p7zip p7zip-plugins

On RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux (if p7zip is unavailable), first enable EPEL:

sudo dnf install epel-release

Verification: 7z i

Arch Linux and Derivatives (Manjaro, EndeavourOS)

sudo pacman -Syu 7zip

(The package is now named 7zip, replacing the older p7zip.)

Verification: 7z i

openSUSE

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install p7zip-full

Other Distributions

Search your package manager for 7zip, p7zip, or p7zip-full. Most modern distributions ship recent versions.

2. Installation of Official Pre-built Binary (Latest Version, No Dependencies)

This is the simplest way to obtain the exact official release (version 26.00 as of February 2026).

Visit https://www.7-zip.org/download.html.
Download the appropriate archive (e.g., 7z2600-linux-x64.tar.xz for 64-bit x86-64 systems; alternatives exist for x86, ARM64, ARM).
Extract:

tar -xJf 7z2600-linux-x64.tar.xz

Install system-wide (recommended):

sudo mv 7z /usr/local/bin/
# Optional: also move helper binaries if present
sudo mv 7za 7zr /usr/local/bin/ 2>/dev/null || true

Verify:

7z i

The binary is self-contained and works on most compatible Linux systems.

3. Compiling from Source

Compile from source if you require custom optimizations, additional codecs, or wish to build on unsupported architectures.

Prerequisites (Common to All Methods)

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install build-essential gcc g++ make

# Fedora/RHEL/Rocky/Alma
sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"

# Arch
sudo pacman -S base-devel

Option A: Official 7-Zip Source (Recommended for Latest Codebase)

Download the source from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html (7z2600-src.tar.xz or .7z).

Extract:

tar -xJf 7z2600-src.tar.xz
cd 7z2600  # or the extracted directory name

Navigate to the console bundle directory and build (simple GCC method):

cd CPP/7zip/Bundles/Alone2
make -f makefile.gcc -j$(nproc)

For the single-file 7za variant (smaller): use directory Bundles/Alone.
For full-featured 7zz (with extra codecs in some forks): similar steps apply.

Install:

sudo make -f makefile.gcc install

Test: 7z i

Note on Optimizations: The full optimized build uses assembly code and may require the asmc assembler (or UASM as a drop-in replacement). If the build fails with “asmc: command not found,” install UASM or fall back to the pure-C GCC build above (still highly performant).

Option B: Updated p7zip Fork (Additional Codecs, e.g., Zstd, Brotli)

A popular maintained fork is available at https://github.com/jinfeihan57/p7zip (based on p7zip 22.00+ with modern enhancements).

git clone -b p7zip22.00 https://github.com/jinfeihan57/p7zip.git
cd p7zip/CPP/7zip/Bundles/Alone2
make -f makefile.gcc -j$(nproc)
sudo make -f makefile.gcc install

Verification: ./_o/7zz i (or 7zz i after install).

Legacy p7zip Source (for Reference Only)

p7zip has not been updated since 2016 (v16.02). Use only if needed for compatibility:

Download from https://sourceforge.net/projects/p7zip/files/
Extract, run make, then sudo ./install.sh.

Post-Installation Notes

Usage example: 7z a archive.7z folder/ (create), 7z x archive.7z (extract), 7z t archive.7z (test integrity).
GUI integration: Most desktop environments automatically use the installed 7z for .7z files.
RAR support: Install p7zip-rar (Debian) or equivalent; it is non-free and may require a separate package.
Updates: Prefer package-manager installations for automatic security updates. For the official binary or source builds, repeat the process when new versions are released.

If you encounter any distribution-specific issues or require support for a particular architecture/version, provide details for more tailored guidance. The methods above cover all standard Linux environments as of February 2026.