---
name: "ancient"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ancient"
version: "2.2.0-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ancient"
---

# ancient(1)

decompression routines for ancient formats

## NAME

ancient - decompression routines for ancient formats

## SYNOPSIS

**ancient** \[*identify*\|*verify*\|*decompress*\|*scan*\] *inputfile* optionaloutputfile\

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **ancient** command.

**ancient** is a collection of decompression routines for old formats popular in the Amiga, Atari computers and some other systems from 80's and 90's as well as some that are currently used which were used in a some specific way in these old systems.\
 For simple usage both a simple command line application as well as a simple API to use the decompressors are provided. The compression algorithm is automatically detected in most cases, however there are some corner cases where it is not entirely reliable due to weaknesses in the old format used.\

## OPTIONS

These programs DO NOT follow the usual GNU command line syntax.

- **identify packed\_input\_file**

  Identifies compression used in a file.

- **verify packed\_input\_file unpacked\_comparison\_file**

  Verifies decompression against known good unpacked file.

- **decompress packed\_input\_file output\_file**

  Decompresses single file

- **scan input\_dir output\_dir**

  Scans input directory recursively and stores all found. Known compressed streams to separate files in output directory.

## SEE ALSO

[**unxz**(1)](/unxz/1.md), [**unpigz**(1)](/unpigz/1.md).\