ZIPX file extension
designates, by
definition , a ZIP
file employing a compression method different than Deflate or Deflate64.
The extension was introduced by WinZip team,
starting from
WinZip 12.1 (released as trialware program on 13 September 2008), in
order to differentiate files created with new compression algorithms
from ZIP files compressed with classic Deflate algorithm - as legacy
applications would be not able to read new files.
WinZip's ZIPX standard is based
on PKZip's ZIP format specifications,
with only difference of employing newer data compression
algorithms - BZip2, LZMA / LZMA2 (XZ), PPMd and others
(superseding
classic Deflate / Deflate64 algorithm) - and employing custom pre-compression filters
(WavPack, MP3 and JPEG filter) to improve compression of images and
other
media data structures.
This results in zipx providing
higher, improved
compression ratio compared to classic zip/Deflate, at cost of
higher
computational cost,
comparable with compression ratio of formats like RAR, ACE,
and
in some cases 7-Zip's 7Z / XZ file format
- modern archiving formats also
relying in LZMA and PPMd -family compression algorithms and multimedia
precompressors.
The possibility of employing alternate compression methods is anyway
already featured in standard ZIP format definition, so using an
alternate designation as ZIPX is merely a choice and does not
(technically) define a different, independent standard.
The file extension
modification from zip to zipx was intended to avoid
ambiguity with users (openly marking it as new type, with new
extension) and prevent older archivers to try to handle the new zipx
standard as it was a classic zip file, failing to support its newer
features.
ZIPX files supports
new AES-based WinZip's AE encryption
(128 bit and 256 bit), which is also part of ZIP standard - and
optionally, for legacy support only, old
ZipCrypto (Zip 2.0) cryptography.
Like for ZIP files, WinZip provides its custom file spanning
scheme for splitting
ZIPX archives (Z01 extension).
As in
current Zip format revision, Zipx
format is limited to maximum 4
billion files per archive (2^32)
and to 16 EB as max file size
(2^64), either for the single input files
and for the total size of the archive - as ZIP64 standard zip archives
- likely exceeding user's needs and limits of current filesystems
implementation.
Read more about size
and number of items limitations of various archive types.
PeaZip can create, open and extract
ZIPX
files with Bzip2, LZMA, LZMA2 / XZ,
and PPMd (technically ZIPX files by definition); custom WavPack, MP3
and JPEG pre-compression filters are currently unsupported (both for
reading and for writing).
To add support to WavPack in PeaZip, you can use WavPack7z plugin
(free of charge, closed source, hence cannot be provided with PeaZip
packages), simply extracting the 32 or 64 bit plugin in PeaZip's
folder, in (peazip)/res/7z/Codecs path.
On file compression
benchmark, and maximum
compression benchmark
pages you
can compare how .zpix format fares, in terms
of compression ration and compression / extraction computation speed,
with mainstream formats
such as .7z, .rar, and .zip, testing various software implementations
(PeaZip, WinRar, WinZip).
External
online resources about .zipx archives: ZIPX Wikipedia
page, WinZip Knowledge
Base entry for ZIPX standard.
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.ZIPX
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WinZip
team, 2008
max 4 billion files per archive
16 EB maximum file size (archive, input files)
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SPEED 
Zipx format features
average speed: using PPMd or
LZMA compression algorithms rather than Deflate, speed is comparable
with WinRar' RAR or 7-Zip's 7Z rather than with classic ZIP compression.
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COMPRESSION
RATIO 
Zipx format features very good compression: PPMd, and LZMA algorithms
(and use of WavPack and JPEG
pre-compression filters) provides compression ratio comparable to RAR
and 7Z formats, so the format offers a flexible solution for fast
archiving / backup (Deflate) and powerful slower compression (PPMd,
LZMA)
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ADVANCED
OPTIONS
Zipx features good advanded options, and it is designed to employ new
AES-based WinZip AE encryption standard. It however lacks
recovery records option
available for competing RAR format.
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Synopsis: .ZIPX file
extension. What is WinZip archive type. What are ZIPX file format
specifications and features in terms of compression speed, compression
ratio, advanced options, and encryption.
Topics: zipx file
extension specs, zip format vs zipx format
PeaZip > FAQ >
ZIPX file extension
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