FreeArc is a modern general-purpose archiver. Main advantage of FreeArc is fast but efficient compression and rich set of features.FreeArc works 1.5–3 times faster than best compression programs.

Advantages

* Free, open-source, with console and GUI versions for both Windows and Linux
* Includes LZMA, PPMD, TrueAudio and generic Multimedia compression algorithms with automatic switching by file type
* Filters that further improve compression: REP (finds repetitions at the distances up to 1gb), DICT (dictionary replacements for texts), DELTA (improves compression of tables in binary data), BCJ (executables preproccesor) and LZP (removes repetitions in texts)
* Special compression algorithms are used in fast compression modes (GRZIP for texts and Tornado for binary data)
* Overall, 11 compression algorithms and filters are included (compared to 3 in 7-zip and 7 in RAR) and this number still grows
* Smart file sorting that groups similar files together and fully customizable sorting order (see below) further improve compression
* Typically, FreeArc works 1.5-3 times faster than best programs in each compression class (ccm, 7-zip, rar, uharc -mz, pkzip) while retaining the same compression ratio; from technical grounds, it’s superior to any existing practical compressor
* Moreover, you can use any external program as compressor or filter as easy as internal ones, with Precomp, ECM, CCM(x), PPMonstr, Durilca, LPAQ, UDA and PAQ are already preconfigured in arc.ini as shipped
* You can fine-tune settings for each compression algorithm, and which compression algorithms are used for each type of files; you can create new compression profiles and modify existing ones; use -dic$ option in order to see all details of compression used

Features

* Solid compression with smart updates (only changed solid blocks are recompressed)
* User-definable solid block size (-s…) and file sorting order (-ds…), including customized filename ordering (arc.groups)
* AES/Blowfish/Twofish/Serpent encryption with keyfiles support and ability to chain multiple ciphers (-p, -hp, --keyfile, --encryption=ALGORITHMS)
* FAR and Total Commander plugins allow to create/browse/extract archives using the file manager interface
* Ability to create SFX (self-extracted) archives and installers
* Ability to list/extract archives directly from Internet: arc x homepage *.h
* Archive protection and recovery, including recovery over Internet driven by CRCs of archive sectors (r/rr/-rr/--original=URL)
* Ability to test archive before and after any operation (-tp/-t), including checking by recovery record and full archive test
* Moving to archive (m), joining archives (j), archive recompression (ch), locking (k) and commenting (-z/cw)
* Select files by size, time/age and name (-sl, -sm, -ta, -tb, -tn, -to, -n), select by/clear ARCHIVE file attribute (-ao/-ac)
* Base directory on disk / inside archive (-dp/-ap), automatic generation of archive filenames (-ag)
* Errors and warnings are reported to stderr and reflected in program exit code; --logfile option saves to the file all the information displayed
* Configurable via arc.ini file and FREEARC environment variable; alternative settings may be selected by means of -cfg/-env options

Compared to RAR and 7-zip, FreeArc at this moment lacks the following: multi-volume archives, 64-bit version, storing of file attributes/extended timestamps/NTFS streams in the archive, bcj2, data segmentation. These are planned to be fixed in subsequent versions.