Project Zipper

pz is a lightweight Go CLI that creates and extracts zip and gzip archives using only the Go standard library. It features automatic multi-threading (using 50% of available CPU cores) for improved performance and generates unique archive names by appending version suffixes when an archive with the base name already exists.

Features

• Smart Auto-Compression - Automatically optimizes compression level based on file size and type
  • Small archives (<10MB): Maximum compression for best results
  • Medium archives (10-100MB): Balanced compression
  • Large archives (100-500MB): Speed-favored compression
  • Very large archives (>500MB): Maximum speed
  • Already-compressed files (JPG, PNG, MP4, ZIP, etc.): Stored without recompression for efficiency
• Automatic Checksum - SHA-256 hash calculated and stored for every archive
  • ZIP archives: Checksum stored in archive comment
  • tar.gz archives: Checksum stored in .sha256 sidecar file
  • Displayed after compression completes
• Multi-threaded compression/extraction - Automatically uses 50% of available CPU cores for parallel processing
• Multiple formats - Supports both ZIP and tar.gz formats
• Smart naming - Auto-versioning (e.g., project.zip, project-v1.zip, project-v2.zip)
• Progress tracking - Real-time progress bars with speed indicators
• Cross-platform - Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Security - Built-in path traversal protection

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later

Install

# From the project root
go install ./cmd/pzip

This installs the pzip binary into your $GOBIN (or $GOPATH/bin).

Usage

Create Archive

Create ZIP archive (default):

pz <path-to-folder>

Create tar.gz archive:

pz -f gz <path-to-folder>

• Archives the specified folder into <folder>.zip or <folder>.tar.gz alongside the source folder.
• If <folder>.zip (or .tar.gz) already exists, a versioned archive such as <folder>-v1.zip, <folder>-v2.zip, etc. is created instead.
• Paths containing spaces are supported without quoting (e.g. pz C:\Active Projects).

Extract Archive

# Extract to current directory
pz -x <archive.zip>
pz -x <archive.tar.gz>

# Extract to specific destination
pz -x <archive.zip> <destination-folder>
pz -x <archive.tar.gz> <destination-folder>

• Extracts the contents of a zip or tar.gz archive
• Automatically detects archive format based on file extension
• Creates destination directory if it doesn't exist
• Shows progress bar with extraction speed
• Includes path traversal protection for security

Windows Context Menu Integration

Add "Compress with pz" to Windows Explorer right-click menu:

# Install context menu (requires administrator)
pz --context install

# Check installation status
pz --context status

# Uninstall context menu
pz --context uninstall

Once installed, you can right-click any folder or file and choose:

• Compress to ZIP - Creates a .zip archive
• Compress to tar.gz - Creates a .tar.gz archive
• Extract here - Extracts archives to the current location

The tool automatically requests administrator privileges if needed.

Progress Output

Creating Archive:

Creating archive for H:\Example\Project (6.1 MB) using 18/36 CPUs...
[##############################--------------------] 62% (3.8 MB/6.1 MB) 4.2 MB/s
✓ Archive complete: H:\Example\Project -> H:\Example\Project.zip (6.1 MB source, 2.9 MB archive, 12 files)

Extracting Archive:

Extracting Project.zip (2.9 MB) using 18/36 CPUs...
[##################################################] 100% (6.1 MB/6.1 MB) 8.3 MB/s
✓ Extraction complete: Project.zip -> H:\Example\Extracted (6.1 MB extracted, 12 files)

The tool automatically detects your CPU count and uses 50% of available cores for parallel file processing, significantly improving performance on multi-core systems.

Windows Env

To add the tool to the system env you can copy the pz.exe from bin\pz.exe to C:\Program files\pz\pz.exe. Then start type env click Enviroment Variables select Path > Edit > New. Then paste C:\Program files\pz\.

Open cmd / powershell type pz and you should get the usage information.

Recommended: After adding to PATH, run pz --context install to enable right-click context menu integration.

Development

# Format code
gofmt -w .

# Build and verify
go build ./...

# Run tests
go test ./...

pzip Can be renamed to pz when you run go build -o pz.exe

Continuous Integration

This repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/ci.yml) that checks formatting and runs the test suite on each push and pull request.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.