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7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

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Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#81

Post by redeeman »

dikei wrote: post #41
cesarb wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone can open a ZIP file, and they don't really care if the file is a few MBs bigger. You can use ZSTD with ZIP files too! It's compression method 93 (see https://pkware.cachefly.net/webdocs/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT which is the official ZIP file specification). Which reveals that "everyone can open a ZIP file" is a lie. Sure, everyone can open a ZIP file, as long as that file uses only a limited subset of the Z…

Well, only a lunatic would use ZIP with anything but DEFLATE/DEFLATE64

there are A LOT of zip files using lzma in the wild. also, how about people learn to use updated software? should newer video compression technologies not be allowed in mkv/mp4.

if you cant open it, well.. then stop using 90ies winzip

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#83

Post by devilbunny »

arp242 wrote: post #61
rf15 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that many people care about zstd; I would assume most 7-zip users care about the convenience of the gui.

It's been a long time since I used Windows, but back in the day I used 7-Zip exactly because it could open more or less $anything. That's also why we installed it on many customer computers. On Linux bsdtar/libarchive gives a similar experience: "tar xf file" works on most things.

7-Zip is like VLC: maybe not the best, but it’s free (speech and beer) and handles almost anything you throw at it. For personal use, I don’t care much about efficient compression either computationally or in terms of storage; I just want “tar, but won’t make a 700 MB blank ISO9660 image take 700 MB”.

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#84

Post by jccalhoun »

d33 wrote: post #10

I worry that 7-Zip is going to lose relevance because lack of zstd support. zlib's performance is intolerable for large files and zlib-ng's SIMD implementation only helps here a bit. Which is a shame, because 7-Zip is a pretty amazing container format, especially with its encryption and file splitting capabilities.

Since Windows 11 incorporated libarchive back in October 2023 there is less reason to use 7-zip on windows. I would be surprised if any of my friends even know what a zip file is let alone zstd.

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#85

Post by quickthrowman »

rf15 wrote: post #13
d33 wrote: post #10

I worry that 7-Zip is going to lose relevance because lack of zstd support. zlib's performance is intolerable for large files and zlib-ng's SIMD implementation only helps here a bit. Which is a shame, because 7-Zip is a pretty amazing container format, especially with its encryption and file splitting capabilities.

Not that many people care about zstd; I would assume most 7-zip users care about the convenience of the gui.

I use the right click context menu to run 7zip, why would you open a GUI?

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#86

Post by vlovich123 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #67
dikei wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ZSTD a ton in my programming work where efficiency matters. But for sharing files with other people, ZIP is still king. Even 7z or RAR is niche. Everyone can open a ZIP file, and they don't really care if the file is a few MBs bigger.

What are you compressing with zstd? I had to do this recently and the "xz" utility still blows it away in terms of compression ratio. In terms of memory and CPU usage, zstd wins by a large margin. But in my case I only really cared about compression ratio

people tend to care about decompression speed - xz can be quite slow decompressing super compressed files whereas zstd decompression speed is largely independent of that.

People also tend to care about how much time they spend on compression for each incremental % of compression performance and zstd tends to be a Pareto frontier for that (at least for open source algorithms)

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#87

Post by 1over137 »

redeeman wrote: post #81
dikei wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, only a lunatic would use ZIP with anything but DEFLATE/DEFLATE64

there are A LOT of zip files using lzma in the wild. also, how about people learn to use updated software? should newer video compression technologies not be allowed in mkv/mp4. if you cant open it, well.. then stop using 90ies winzip

>how about people learn to use updated software?

How about software developers learn to keep software working on old OSes and old hardware?

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#88

Post by rs186 »

jccalhoun wrote: post #84
d33 wrote: post #10

I worry that 7-Zip is going to lose relevance because lack of zstd support. zlib's performance is intolerable for large files and zlib-ng's SIMD implementation only helps here a bit. Which is a shame, because 7-Zip is a pretty amazing container format, especially with its encryption and file splitting capabilities.

Since Windows 11 incorporated libarchive back in October 2023 there is less reason to use 7-zip on windows. I would be surprised if any of my friends even know what a zip file is let alone zstd.

If you ever try to extract an archive file of several gigabyte size with hundreds of thousands of files (I know, it's rare), the built-in one is as slow as a turtle compared to 7z.

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#89

Post by chasil »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #62
dikei wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use ZSTD a ton in my programming work where efficiency matters. But for sharing files with other people, ZIP is still king. Even 7z or RAR is niche. Everyone can open a ZIP file, and they don't really care if the file is a few MBs bigger.

I don't know about, had a dicey situation recently where powershell's compress-archive couldn't handle archives >4GB and had to use 7zip. it is more reliable and you can ship 7za.exe or create self-extracting archives (wish those were more of a thing outside of the windows world).

In the realm of POSIX.2 and UNIX relatives, the closest analog would be a "shar" archive.

They are not regarded kindly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shar_(file_format)

Re: 7-Zip for Windows can now use more than 64 CPU threads for compression

#90

Post by conkeisterdoor »

pjmlp wrote: post #66
d33 wrote: post #10

I worry that 7-Zip is going to lose relevance because lack of zstd support. zlib's performance is intolerable for large files and zlib-ng's SIMD implementation only helps here a bit. Which is a shame, because 7-Zip is a pretty amazing container format, especially with its encryption and file splitting capabilities.

As long as it does a better job than whatever Windows team packs into the OS, they're safe. Even on latest Windows 11 takes minutes to do what 7-Zip does in seconds. Goes to show how good all those leetcode interviews turn out.

Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. WinZip is a slow and bloated abomination, especially compared to 7-Zip. The right-click menu context entry for 7-Zip is very convenient and runs lightning fast. WinZip can't compete at all.
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