msexpand

expand Microsoft COMPRESS.EXE compressed files

TLDR

Expand a compressed file (output written to stdout)

$ msexpand [file.ex_]

Expand a file and save the result

$ msexpand [file.ex_] > [file.exe]

Decompress from standard input

$ cat [file.ex_] | msexpand > [file.exe]

Expand multiple files

$ msexpand [file1.dl_] [file2.ex_]

Print version information

$ msexpand -V

SYNOPSIS

msexpand [-h]msexpand [-V]msexpand [name...]

msexpand decompresses files produced by mscompress(1) or the Microsoft COMPRESS.EXE utility (for example, the `*.??_` files found on Windows 3.x and early Windows 9x installation media).When invoked without file arguments, msexpand reads compressed data from standard input and writes the decompressed output to standard output. When one or more filenames are supplied, each is decompressed to standard output in order; redirect the output to save the result to a file.

PARAMETERS

name

One or more compressed input files. If omitted, input is read from standard input.

-h

Display a short usage message.

-V

Display version information.

CAVEATS

Handles only the legacy SZDD/KWAJ single-file compression format. It does not understand Microsoft CAB archives (use cabextract(1) for those) or modern ZIP archives. Unlike the original DOS `EXPAND.EXE`, msexpand does not rename the output file automatically.

HISTORY

Part of the mscompress package, developed as a free re-implementation of the Microsoft COMPRESS/EXPAND file format so that legacy Windows installation files can be unpacked on Unix systems.