Squashfs is a highly compressed read-only filesystem for Linux (kernel 2.4.x). It uses Gzip compression to compress files, inodes and directories. Inodes in the system are very small and all blocks are packed to minimise data overhead. Block sizes greater than 4K are supported up to a maximum of 64K.

Version 3.2 of squashfs released in January, 2007.

http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/

Some sample code and a tutorial explaining how to use the InfoZip DLLs with VB.

http://www.codeguru.com/vb/gen/vb_graphics/fileformats/article.php/c6743/

Unrar can extract files from .rar archives. Can’t handle archives in the RAR 3.0 format.

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/unrar

Ch zlib Package is Ch interface to zlib. Ch is a C/C++ interpretive freely available from htpp://www.softintegration.com. Ch zlib Package alllows zlib applications with compression and decompression function runs in Ch across platform without compilation. Ch zlib Package includes the source code for building the binding to zlib.

http://chzlib.sourceforge.net/

Yet another Windows archiving program. PowerArchiver comes with a nice long list of supported formats: ZIP, CAB, LHA (LZH), TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, BH, RAR, ARJ, ARC, ACE, ZOO, GZ, BZIP2, XXE, and UUE. Plus a built-in viewer for JPG, GIF, and a few other formats.

Release 9.0 of PowerArchiver shipped July, 2004.

http://www.powerarchiver.com/

DynaZIP offers just about everything you’d want to work with Zip files in a Win32 environment.

DataCompression.info user Mike L. had this to say: Creates huge output executables. Features contained in multiple packages are contained in a single package in comparable products. Pricing is very steep compared to comparable products.

http://www.innermedia.com/dz/index.htm

PicoZip is an award winning file compression utility that runs on all 32-bit Windows platforms such as Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP. It is extremely easy to use, yet contains many advanced features that helps you create or unzip ZIP files, as well as most other popular archive formats like RAR, ACE, LHA, JAR, etc.

PicoZip 3.0 shipping as of July, 2004.

DataCompression.info user Derek P. had this to say: This is one of the best Zip Utilities out there! The Batch Testing of Archives tool is fast and accurate!!! Other Zip Utility Makers need to take notes!.

http://www.picozip.com/

JSPFM supports the standard file operations of creation, editing, copying, moving, deleting, renaming and compression/decompression of files and directories. JSPFM also supports some special file operations specific to certain file types such as transposition and resizing of image type files.

http://jspfilemanager.sourceforge.net/

Unlike some other compressor comparison sites, I won’t be looking for a compressor offering for the last bit of compression. Instead I’ll try to find the most practical compressor out there.

http://www.elis.ugent.be/~wheirman/compression/

In this article I present a namespace of managed types that provide a wrapper to some of the standard functionalities exported by ZLib. ZLib is a well known free, general-purpose lossless data-compression library for use on any operating system.

http://codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppzlibwrapper.asp

This site compares compressors on the basis of compression ratios only. Speed is not an issue.

http://www.freewebs.com/emilcont/

Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer & László Molnár have created an executable packer that works on DOS, Linux, and Windows executables.
A DCL user had this to say: UPX is just excellent - and it’s free.

UPX 1.25 is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://upx.sourceforge.net/

Use the zipdiff tool when you need to compare the contents of two zip files. It is equally suited for comparing jar files, EAR files, WAR files or RAR files. Run it standalone or as an Ant task. The tool supports three output formats: plain text, XML, and HTML. zipdiff is written in Java.

Release 0.4 is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://zipdiff.sourceforge.net/

The Heirloom Toolchest includes Open Source cpio and tar implementations running on Linux, Solaris, and Open UNIX. cpio is able to read and write all known Unix cpio archive formats, including proprietary ones, and zip files, including support for the zip64 format.

The most recent update of the project was on June 30, 2004.

http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/

p7zip is a quick port of 7za.exe (command line version of 7zip, see www.7-zip.org) for Unix. 7-Zip is a file archiver with highest compression ratio.

Version 0.81 is shipping as of July, 2004.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/p7zip/

Microsoft .NET Stream-derived objects that wrap ZLib inflate and deflate functions (C++ Mixed Mode implementation)

Version 1.0.1 is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/zlibnetwrapper/

This source code shows how to add zip/unzip functionality to your programs. Claim to fame: simplicity and clean packaging.

http://codeproject.com/file/zip_utils.asp

An article that describes MemoryStream based Compression based on SharpZipLib.

Last updated June 21, 2004.

http://codeproject.com/useritems/mscompression.asp

This program from Gammadyne is used to create a professional quality installation program out of an archive file.

Version 11.3 was shipping as of June, 2004.

http://www.gammadyne.com/seau.htm

A rating of roughly 20 different compressors - strictly based on size.

http://members.optushome.com.au/dogg01/compframe.htm

Zipgenius is yet-another-archiver. Supports 21 different compression formats, plus a pretty long list of extras, such as FTP support, email, backup functions, and more. The long list of features might make you expect a price tag, but ZipGenius is in fact free!

Version 5.5.1.440 of ZipGenius is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://www.zipgenius.it/

Does everything you want, and costs a lot less than the two market leaders!

Version 3.0 is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://www.simplyzip.com

There are two programs named SimplyZip. This is the free one from Germany. This program has an awesome list of supported archives formats.

Version 1.1 is shipping as of June, 2004

http://www.dpaehl.de/

PKWare lets you create secure SFX files for distributing data. However, they aren’t going to tell you how much you have to pay on this page - you have to fill out an inquiry form and send it to their sales team.

http://www.pkware.com/products/developers/distrib/

PECompact compresses Windows executables significantly, while allowing them to be run as normal. You can compresses code, data, import/export table, and selected resources. Section merging and resource data restructuring are also supported. It trims, optimizes, and realigns the PE structure while preserving shell icons and version information, or any other resources you chose to leave uncompressed. Uses its own JCALG1 compression, which offers decent compression speed, great compression ratio, and extremely rapid decompression.

Version 2.28 is shipping in June, 2004.

http://www.collakesoftware.com/pecompact.htm

Petite is a Win32 (Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP) executable (EXE/DLL/etc…) compressor. The compressed executables decompress themselves at run time, and can be used just like the original uncompressed versions. Petite also adds virus detection to the compressed executables - they will check themselves for infection every time they are executed.

http://un4seen.com/petite/

This is reportedly a Win32 exe packer. However, this is a Chinese langauge site so even that is just a guess.

http://www.tlzj18.com/

This is reputedly the home page of the PeX executable cracker. However, the fact that the page appears to be in Polish keeps me from saying more than that.

http://xtreeme.prv.pl/

Your basic free zip program. Includes the normal archiving functions, plus some search, email, and ftp options as well.

Version 2.5 is shipping as of June, 2004.

http://www.coffeecup.com/zip-wizard/

A nice set of tests comparing a wide variety of executable packers.

http://pect.y11.net/