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Cram
Multi-format archive tool, 6-11x faster than 7-Zip
One command for zip, 7z, tar.*, ISO, RAR and its owncram format: list, extract, create, test, mount, sign. It uses every core, which most archivers don't. Creating 2.8GB / 42,151 files: 6.95s against 7-Zip's 68.25s, 13.4% smaller. Azip extracts in 1.89s against 7.21s.cram stores repeated data once across files, not just whole duplicates. Where it loses: little duplication means 9-19% larger than 7-Zip, and it costs memory. The corpus is a public download. MIT/Apache-2.0. GUI is paid.
Cram started much smaller. I wanted to unzip a large file faster, looked at
why it was slow, and found that 7-Zip and Info-ZIP both extract a .zip on a
single core, even though every entry in the format is independently
addressable and always has been. So I wrote a parallel unzip.
Pulling on that turned up the same gap almost everywhere else. Writing a
.tar.xz ran on one core. So did a .7z holding one large file. Most of Cram is
that observation applied repeatedly, plus a governor that measures the machine
instead of assuming one, because the balance between decode speed and disk
write speed is completely different on my two test boxes and a fixed answer is
wrong on both.
The native format came later and is the part I'd defend hardest. Content-
defined chunking means repeated data is stored once even when it sits at
different offsets inside different files, which no setting on 7-Zip or WinRAR
will do.
Being upfront about the shape of it: Windows, Linux and Apple Silicon macOS all
build and run the full suite, but mounting an archive as a folder is Windows-
only and so is the GUI.
What I'd ask for is scrutiny of the numbers. BENCHMARKS.md has a section on
where Cram loses, which is mostly ratio against 7-Zip on data with no
duplication, and memory against nearly everyone. The corpus is a 2.22 GiB
download with a published SHA256 and a script that rebuilds it byte-for-byte
from public sources, so you can check the table rather than take it.
Happy to answer anything.
About Cram on Product Hunt
“Multi-format archive tool, 6-11x faster than 7-Zip”
Cram was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 2 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #159 on the daily leaderboard. One command for zip, 7z, tar.*, ISO, RAR and its owncram format: list, extract, create, test, mount, sign. It uses every core, which most archivers don't. Creating 2.8GB / 42,151 files: 6.95s against 7-Zip's 68.25s, 13.4% smaller. Azip extracts in 1.89s against 7.21s.cram stores repeated data once across files, not just whole duplicates. Where it loses: little duplication means 9-19% larger than 7-Zip, and it costs memory. The corpus is a public download. MIT/Apache-2.0. GUI is paid.
On the analytics side, Cram competes within Windows, Open Source, Developer Tools and GitHub — topics that collectively have 641.4k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Cram performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Cram?
Cram was hunted by Ulysses Horkan. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of Cram including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Ulysses Horkan