universalarchive plugin

The universalarchive plugin provides a convenient command-line interface for archiving files and directories using a wide variety of compression formats - without having to remember the exact syntax for each tool.

To enable it, add universalarchive to the plugins array in your .zshrc file:

zsh

plugins=(... universalarchive)

Features

Compress files and directories using a simple, unified command: ua <format> <files>
Automatically detects file/directory names to generate appropriate output names
Supports fallback naming if an output file already exists
Works with many common and advanced compression formats
Designed for simplicity and quick use in the terminal

Usage

Basic command format:

ua <format> <files...>

<format>: the archive format to use (e.g., zip, tar.gz, xz, 7z, etc.)
<files...>: one or more files or directories to compress

Examples:

Compresses notes.txt and images into notes.zip

ua zip notes.txt images/

Creates myproject.tar.gz

ua tar.gz myproject/

Compresses all .log files into current_folder.xz

ua xz *.log

The plugin will generate a default archive filename based on the input:

For a file, the output is derived from the file name without its extension.
For a directory, it uses the directory name.
For multiple files, it uses the name of the common parent directory.

If the output file already exists, a unique filename is generated using mktemp.

Supported Archive Formats

Format	Description	Tool Used
`7z`	7zip archive	`7z`
`bz2`	Bzip2-compressed file	`bzip2`
`gz`	Gzip-compressed file	`gzip`
`lzma`	LZMA-compressed file	`lzma`
`lzo`	LZO-compressed file	`lzop`
`rar`	WinRAR archive	`rar`
`tar`	Uncompressed tarball	`tar`
`tbz`,`tar.bz2`	Tarball compressed with Bzip2	`tar + bzip2`
`tgz`,`tar.gz`	Tarball compressed with Gzip	`tar + gzip`
`tlz`,`tar.lzma`	Tarball compressed with LZMA	`tar + lzma`
`txz`,`tar.xz`	Tarball compressed with LZMA2	`tar + xz`
`tZ`,`tar.Z`	Tarball compressed with LZW	`tar + compress`
`xz`	XZ-compressed file	`xz`
`Z`	LZW-compressed file	`compress`
`zip`	Standard Zip archive	`zip`
`zst`	Zstandard-compressed file	`zstd`

Note: Some formats may require specific tools to be installed on your system (e.g. 7z, rar, lzop, zstd). Make sure these tools are available in your $PATH.

Auto-Completion

The plugin provides tab-completion for supported formats and input files. Type ua <TAB> to see available formats, and ua <format> <TAB> to browse files.