Basic usage

Purpose

This section covers fundamental operations for working with archives using Cabriolet. These guides apply to all supported formats and provide the foundation for more advanced usage.

References

Concepts

All archive operations in Cabriolet follow a consistent pattern, whether you’re working with CAB, CHM, SZDD, or other formats. The basic operations are:

  • Extracting: Retrieving files from an archive

  • Creating: Building new archives from source files

  • Listing: Viewing archive contents without extracting

  • Testing: Verifying archive integrity

Basic Operations

Extracting files

Extracting Files covers:

  • Extracting all files from an archive

  • Specifying output directories

  • Handling file conflicts

  • Preserving file attributes

  • Recursive extraction

Creating archives

Creating Archives explains:

  • Adding files to new archives

  • Choosing compression algorithms

  • Setting archive options

  • Adding directories recursively

  • Managing file attributes

Listing contents

Listing Contents demonstrates:

  • Viewing file lists

  • Displaying file details

  • Filtering by patterns

  • Sorting output

  • Formatting options

Testing integrity

Testing Integrity covers:

  • Verifying archive structure

  • Checking file checksums

  • Detecting corruption

  • Validating compression

  • Error reporting

Common Workflows

Quick extraction 

# Extract archive to current directory
cabriolet extract archive.cab

# Extract to specific directory
cabriolet extract archive.cab output/

Quick archive creation 

# Create archive from files
cabriolet create my-archive.cab file1.txt file2.txt

# Create from directory
cabriolet create backup.cab data/

Inspection workflow 

# View contents
cabriolet list archive.cab

# Get detailed info
cabriolet info archive.cab

# Test integrity
cabriolet test archive.cab

Format Compatibility

These basic operations work across all supported formats:

Format Notes

CAB

Full support for all operations

CHM

Use chm- prefixed commands

SZDD

Single-file only, use expand/compress

KWAJ

Use kwaj- prefixed commands

HLP

Use hlp- prefixed commands

LIT

Use lit- prefixed commands

OAB

Use oab- prefixed commands

For format-specific details, see Format Guides.

Next steps

After mastering basic operations:

Bibliography

Related sections

Table of contents