dtrx(1)

✨ dtrx — cleanly extract many archive types ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because dtrx is about to change your whole unzip situation. it's a manual page, it's a group chat, it's both. let's go 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dtrx [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE [ARCHIVE ...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so dtrx extracts archives in a bunch of different formats, and it currently supports tar, zip (yes, including self-extracting .exe files, iconic of it), cpio, rpm, deb, gem, 7z, cab, rar, lzh, arj, and InstallShield files. bestie it's giving "one tool to rule them all" no cap 🫶

and it doesn't stop there — it can also decompress files compressed with gzip, bzip2, lzma, xz, lrzip, lzip, or compress. the range?? unmatched. periodt.

but like, besides being that one command that handles a million archive types, dtrx also helps you out by extracting contents consistently. by default, everything gets written to a dedicated directory that's named after the archive. and dtrx also changes the permissions so that the owner can read and write all those files. tidy queen behavior 🎀

to run dtrx, simply call it with the archive(s) you wish to extract as arguments. for example:

$ dtrx coreutils-5.*.tar.gz

you can specify URLs as arguments too 🤯 and if you do, dtrx will use wget -c to download the URL to the current directory, and then extract whatever it downloaded. it may fail if you already have a file in the current directory with the same name as the file you're trying to download — so like, heads up, don't do that 🙈

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

dtrx supports a number of options to mandate specific behavior. she's flexible, she listens, she delivers:

• -r, --recursive — with this option, dtrx will search inside the archives you specify to see if any of the contents are themselves archives, and extract those as well. archives within archives?? it's giving inception, and we're obsessed 🔥
• --one, --one-entry — normally, if an archive only contains one file or directory, and its name doesn't match the archive's, dtrx will ask you how to handle it. with this option, you can specify ahead of time what should happen. the possible values are:
  • inside — extract the file/directory inside another directory named after the archive. this is the default, so if you're not sure, this is the vibe.
  • rename — extract the file/directory in the current directory, and then rename it to match the name of the archive. a little glow-up, as a treat ✨
  • here — extract the file/directory in the current directory. just, like, right there. raw. no extra folder 💀
• -o, --overwrite — normally dtrx will avoid extracting into a directory that already exists, and instead try to find an alternative name to use. but if this option is listed, dtrx will use the default directory name no matter what. she said "i'm not asking, i'm telling."
• -f, --flat — extract all archive contents into the current directory, instead of their own dedicated directory. this is handy if you have multiple archive files which all need to be extracted into the same directory structure. > heads up bestie: existing files may be overwritten with this option. so like, know what you're doing, fr fr 😭
• -n, --noninteractive — dtrx will normally ask the user how to handle certain corner cases, like how to handle an archive that only contains one file. this option suppresses those questions; dtrx will instead use sane, conservative defaults. no small talk, just results 👑
• -l, -t, --list, --table — don't extract the archives; just list their contents on standard output. window shopping, but make it archive contents 🛍️
• -m, --metadata — extract the metadata from .deb and .gem archives, instead of their normal contents. sometimes you want the receipts, not the whole meal 🧾
• -q, --quiet — suppress warning messages. list this option twice to make dtrx silent. two -qs and she's not speaking to anyone 🤐
• -v, --verbose — show the files that are being extracted. list this option twice to print debugging information. two -vs and she's telling you everything 🗣️
• --help — display basic help. she's got you, bestie.
• --version — display dtrx's version, copyright, and license information. the origin story, the legal lore 📜

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📜 LICENSE 📜

dtrx 7.1 is copyright © 2006-2011 Brett Smith and others. feel free to send comments, bug reports, patches, and so on — the author literally wants them, so don't be shy 🫶 you can find the latest version of dtrx on its home page at http://www.brettcsmith.org/2007/dtrx/.

dtrx is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. slay, legally speaking 💖

this program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. see the GNU General Public License for more details. (yes, that's the all-caps part, and yes, it's meant to be that loud. do not skip it 📢)

you should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

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🎀 Author 🎀

Brett Smith <brettcsmith@brettcsmith.org>

🌈 Copyright 🌈

2006-2011 Brett Smith and others

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okay that's the whole page, you're officially certified in dtrx bestie, go extract something iconic 💅✨ this was the dtrx(1) page from the General Commands Manual, dated 2011-11-19 — sending you good extraction vibes, bye 🦋🌸