Archive Utility is the default archive file

File archiver

A file archiver is a computer program that combines a number of files together into one archive file, or a series of archive files, for easier transportation or storage...

 handler in Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

. It is usually invoked automatically when opening a file in one of its supported formats. It can be used to create compressed ZIP

ZIP (file format)

Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...

 archives by choosing "Create archive of 'file'" (Leopard: "Compress") in the Finder's

Macintosh Finder

The Finder is the default file manager used on Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems; it is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications...

 File

File menu

The File menu is a computer menu common to most file-handling computer programs with a GUI . It often appears as the first item in the menu bar, and contains commands relating to the handling of files, such as open, save, print, etc...

 or contextual menu. It is located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Archive Utility.app in 10.5 and later, and /System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper.app in 10.4

Mac OS X v10.4

Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...

. Prior to Archive Utility's inclusion in Mac OS X v10.3

Mac OS X v10.3

Mac OS X Panther is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and preceded Mac OS X Tiger...

, beginning with Mac OS 7.6, Apple bundled the freeware StuffIt Expander

StuffIt Expander

StuffIt Expander is a proprietary, freeware, closed source, decompression software utility developed by Allume Systems . It runs in Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux x86/UNIX.As of November 2010, the latest Macintosh version is 2011 , which requires Mac OS X v10.5 or later...

 with the operating system.

Invoking Archive Utility manually shows a minimal GUI

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 letting the user change Archive Utility preferences or choose files to compress or uncompress. BOMArchiveHelper 10.4.11 cannot be manually invoked. It may be inferred that prior to 10.5, BOMArchiveHelper could not be manually invoked.

BOM is an abbreviation of Bill of Materials. Bill of Materials files or .bom files are used by the Mac OS X Installer

Installer (Mac OS X)

Installer is an application included in Mac OS X which extracts and installs files out of .pkg packages. It was created by NeXT, and is now maintained by Apple Inc...

 program to document where files in an installer bundle are installed, what their file permissions should be, and other file metadata. Thus, a Bill of Materials is read by the Installer, and Archive Utility helps it by extracting the files specified in the BOM.

Supported formats

Writing and creating support:

• ZIP
  ZIP (file format)
  Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
  
   (.zip)—password-protected ZIP archives are not supported

Reading and extracting support:
(It works as a front-end for command-line programs that are part of Mac OS X.)

• bzip2
  Bzip2
  bzip2 is a free and open source implementation of the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It is developed and maintained by Julian Seward. Seward made the first public release of bzip2, version 0.15, in July 1996.-Compression efficiency:...
  
   (.bz, .bz2)
• cbz (comic book zip)
• cpgz (cpio gziped)
• cpio
  Cpio
  cpio is a general file archiver utility and its associated file format. It is primarily installed on Unix-like computer operating systems. The software utility was originally intended as a tape archiving program as part of the Programmer's Workbench , and has been a component of virtually every...
  
   (.cpio)
• gz
  Gzip
  Gzip is any of several software applications used for file compression and decompression. The term usually refers to the GNU Project's implementation, "gzip" standing for GNU zip. It is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of Lempel-Ziv and Huffman coding...
  
   (.gzip, .gz)
• tar
  Tar (file format)
  In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
  
   (.tar)
• tgz
  Tar (file format)
  In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
  
   (tar gziped)
• tbz
  Bzip2
  bzip2 is a free and open source implementation of the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It is developed and maintained by Julian Seward. Seward made the first public release of bzip2, version 0.15, in July 1996.-Compression efficiency:...
  
  , tbz2
  Bzip2
  bzip2 is a free and open source implementation of the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It is developed and maintained by Julian Seward. Seward made the first public release of bzip2, version 0.15, in July 1996.-Compression efficiency:...
  
   (tar bziped)
• jar
  JAR (file format)
  In software, JAR is an archive file format typically used to aggregate many Java class files and associated metadata and resources into one file to distribute application software or libraries on the Java platform.JAR files are built on the ZIP file format and have the .jar file extension...
  
   (Java Archive)
• compress
  Compress
  Compress is a UNIX compression program based on the LZC compression method, which is an LZW implementation using variable size pointers as in LZ78.- Description of program :Files compressed by compress are typically given the extension .Z...
  
   (.Z)
• uuencode
  Uuencode
  Uuencoding is a form of binary-to-text encoding that originated in the Unix program uuencode, for encoding binary data for transmission over the uucp mail system.The name "uuencoding" is derived from "Unix-to-Unix encoding"...
  
  
• ZIP
  ZIP (file format)
  Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
  
  (.zip)—password-protected ZIP archives are not supported

External links

• Apple Manual page for lsbom which lists the contents of BOM files