Extracting a tar.z file in C#

I would like to extract a file compressed in the tar.z (or .taz) format with the .NET framework. The problem is I cannot find any libraries wich support the LZW algorithm (often, zip, gzip and bzip2 are supported, and Z is not, for example in SharpZipLib).

It appears that compress (the algorithm producing .z compressed files) is quite old, maybe it's the reason why it's hard to find a library supporting it.

Do you have any idea concerning the extraction of such compressed files?

*EDIT: * So we have VB code to compress/decompress LZW files, but I have not found a C# library doing this job yet. So the question remains open.

From stackoverflow

• Maybe this could be useful: http://community.sharpdevelop.net/forums/p/4969/14447.aspx#14447

  andynormancx : That isn't going to help, that uses GZip. The questioner is dealing with LZW/Compress, not GZip.

  OutOfBound : I already found this page, but it does not work: the author does not extract a .z compressed file, but a .gz compressed file (he uses a GZipInputStream). Algorithms are different !

• Compress uses the LZW algorithm, there is a VB.NET implementation of it here:

  http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/VB_LZW.aspx

  It would be fairly easy to convert it to C#. Combining that with the Tar code from SharpZipLib should do what you need.

  OutOfBound : ok thanks, i will try to convert this VB code into C#

• You can import the J# libraries and use them in C#. They should handle that compression type. The pain that I've encountered is that you also have to install the J# runtime with your application.

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164129.aspx

  Here is a class that I have shamelessly stolen and modified from somewhere on the Internet.

  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Text;
  using java.util;
  using java.util.zip;
  using java.io;
  using System.IO;
  
  namespace cZip
  {
      public class cZip
      {
          public static void Zip(string zipFileName, List<string> sourceFiles)
          {
              FileOutputStream filOpStrm = new FileOutputStream(zipFileName);
              ZipOutputStream zipOpStrm = new ZipOutputStream(filOpStrm);
              FileInputStream filIpStrm = null;
              foreach (string strFilName in sourceFiles)
              {
                  filIpStrm = new FileInputStream(strFilName);
                  ZipEntry ze = new ZipEntry(Path.GetFileName(strFilName));
                  zipOpStrm.putNextEntry(ze);
                  sbyte[] buffer = new sbyte[1024];
                  int len = 0;
                  while ((len =
  
                  filIpStrm.read(buffer)) >= 0)
                  {
                      zipOpStrm.write(buffer, 0, len);
                  }
              }
              zipOpStrm.closeEntry();
              filIpStrm.close();
              zipOpStrm.close();
              filOpStrm.close();
          }
          public static void Extract(string zipFileName, string destinationPath)
          {
              ZipFile zipfile = new ZipFile(zipFileName);
              List<ZipEntry> zipFiles = GetZipFiles(zipfile);
  
              foreach (ZipEntry zipFile in zipFiles)
              {
                  if (!zipFile.isDirectory())
                  {
                      InputStream s = zipfile.getInputStream(zipFile);
                      try
                      {
                          Directory.CreateDirectory(String.Format(@"{0}\{1}", destinationPath, Path.GetDirectoryName(zipFile.getName())));
                          FileOutputStream dest = new FileOutputStream(Path.Combine(destinationPath + "\\" + Path.GetDirectoryName(zipFile.getName()), Path.GetFileName(zipFile.getName())));
                          try
                          {
                              int len = 0;
                              sbyte[] buffer = new sbyte[7168];
                              while ((len = s.read(buffer)) >= 0)
                              {
                                  dest.write(buffer, 0, len);
                              }
                          }
                          finally
                          {
                              dest.close();
                          }
                      }
                      finally
                      {
                          s.close();
                      }
                  }
              }
          }
          public static List<ZipEntry> GetZipFiles(ZipFile zipfil)
          {
              List<ZipEntry> lstZip = new List<ZipEntry>();
              Enumeration zipEnum = zipfil.entries();
              while (zipEnum.hasMoreElements())
              {
                  ZipEntry zip = (ZipEntry)zipEnum.nextElement();
                  lstZip.Add(zip);
              }
              return lstZip;
          }
      }
  
  }
  

  andynormancx : Are you 100% sure that java.util.zip handles LZW/Compress which is what the question asks for ? Googling suggests that, as its name suggests, that it handles zip and not plain LZW. Zip != LZW.

• I finally chose to use another compression algorithm (GZIP), which is supported by most libraries.

  I think this solution is more reliable than translating VB into C#.

  Frank Krueger : Come on man, you shouldn't mark an answer as correct if it doesn't answer the question. **Your** problem may be solved, but **someone in the future** who needs to decompress Z files in C# won't benefit from the accepted answer.

  OutOfBound : Yes you're right. I unmarked it.

• Take gzip.exe and stream the file through it in pipe. gzip -d will read .Z files correctly.

• This should do the job http://www.chilkatsoft.com/p/p_68.asp

• Very small, one-file open source class for reading Tar files in .NET:
  Tar in C#.